Short video game reviews
Short video game reviews
This article was supposed to contain short reviews of games I've played, but
it seems I'm unable to limit myself, so some of them got quite long. Games are
grouped by series or other relation (like genre); parentheses contain the
version I've reviewed.
- Hitman GO: Definitive Edition (PS Vita)
- - Contact
(DS) - -
Corpse Party (PSP)
- - Phoenix
Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
- - Ace Attorney:
Justice for All (DS)
- - Ace
Attorney: Trials & Tribulations
- - Apollo
Justice: Ace Attorney (DS)
- - Ace Attorney
Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
- - Ace Attorney:
Dual Destinies (3DS)
- - Ace Attorney:
Spirit of Justice (3DS)
- - Donkey Kong:
Jungle Climber (DS)
- - Yggdra Union:
We'll Never Fight Alone (PSP)
- - Etrian
Odyssey (DS) - -
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS)
- - Etrian Odyssey
III: The Drowned City (DS)
- - Etrian Odyssey
IV: Legends of the Titan (3DS)
- - Etrian Odyssey
V: Beyond the Myth (3DS)
- - Mary Skelter:
Nightmares (PS Vita)
- - Mary
Skelter 2 (Switch) -
Wipeout Pure (PSP)
Futuristic racing game with shooting in it! Very clever way of handling
difficulty - when you clear tournaments at a certain speed level, you unlock the
faster ones. So newbies are forced to get good to be able to progress. Game is
unforgiving - it's hard to make turns especially at the higher speeds, while the
AI will of course make them perfectly unless an opponent intervenes. As if that
wasn't enough, the AI also "cheats" by almost always having the same guy win
the race (if you don't do it instead). Decent variety of cars, all with
different statistics - though they don't seem to matter that much in the
actual game. For example, the Speed stat just affects the top speed which
you will rarely reach, and Shield is easily rechargable so a low one is not
that much of a handicap. Weapons could be done better - there's the overpowered
Quake weapon, while the Plasma is so hard to aim with as to become
almost useless. And there is no way of affecting what kind of weapon you get,
which IMO would be a great tactical addition to the game. The weapon symbols are
also pretty unintuitive - you don't really know what you've got since they are
just geometric figures - at least until those stick into your mind. They could
have drawn an actual rocket instead of some green square or whatever (Lego
Racers, a game from 1999, figured these things out already). It might seem I'm
just shitting on this game, but in reality it is a good game despite the
small flaws. Stylish, colorful graphics, nice animations, amazing soundtrack,
unlockable cars and tracks makes this a staple. And of course it pulls you
in, which seals the deal in the end. I don't even like racing games that much,
and yet I've spent way too much time on this - so you don't need to be a fan of
the genre to enjoy WipeOut Pure. Recommended.
Wipeout Pulse (PSP)
Sequel to the above, adding new modes (Eliminator mode, which focuses on
destroying cars instead of actual racing, is super fun), tracks, cars (but
removes the unlocks...), weapons, a loyalty system which can add skins to
your favorite car, and a grid campaign structure. It also removes the cheating
AI so that the same opponent won't win almost every race. This makes it easier
to clear tournaments, though the unforgiving speed is still there. Soundtrack is
a little worse than Pure's. Not much more to say - if you liked Pure,
Pulse will not disappoint either. Note: GET ALL THE DLC if you want to
try these games. Recommended.
Wipeout 2048 (PS Vita)
Unfortunately, a clear downgrade compared to the previous titles. Though
there are some very welcome additions (track shortcuts, proper weapon icons,
prototype cars with special features...), the negatives severely outweigh
those. First of all, there is only the campaign mode! That's right - the
custom race mode present in pretty much all racing games ever is missing for
some reason. You'd think they would make the only available mode actually good
then, but no. Only one car is unlocked at the start! In contrast to the
previous titles where you could earn one of three medals in every event - here
you can either pass an event (which for most of them is very easy) or
elite pass it (often almost impossible - like for the time trials). Couldn't
they have put something in the middle? What was wrong with the old medal
system, anyway? How about if you have a problem passing an event at all? No
matter, after a few tries a prompt will appear, asking if you want to skip it
(what a joke - makes the whole campaign structure pointless). Another
casualization "feature" is the pilot assist which allegedly helps you clear
tough turns. We didn't need that in the previous installments, so why now? Your
opponents are almost indistinguishable since they can even use the same cars, so
the strategy of focusing on one opponent to destroy in Eliminator mode is
pretty much gone. Soundtrack is worse than the previous games, too. The fun
Wipeout gameplay is still there though, which is what saves this game in the
end. Somewhat recommended.
Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords (PSP)
Candy Crush on steroids...and some really strong ones. Actually, this is a
role-playing game where the fights are done through matching gems. It will
really test your focus - forget about smashing through your enemies, at least
for the bigger part of the game. Every opponent will require a different
strategy - from the gear and spells you pick for the fight, to the movements you
make on the actual board. There are four different mana gems which will add to
their respective mana pools. The variety of spells is massive - damage, HP or
mana recovery, gaining additional turns, destroying gems of certain color, and
many, many others. Different classes get access to different ones. You also have
to pay attention to the opponent's spells. A perfect example of the kind of
thinking this game requires is the Troll - he has the Regeneration spell
and will keep spamming it if allowed - you have to keep "stealing" his blue
gems so he can't use it; otherwise he will just wear you down. The choice of
items is another significant one - and the variety is just as insane,
especially considering the fact that you can craft them. For that, you need
runes which you get from beating enemies in certain places. The better the item,
the harder the crafting minigame will be. The mechanic is pretty well balanced
since the really strong runes only appear later; though, if you do it right, you
will be unstoppable for the last 1/4 of the game or so (probably the game's
biggest flaw - but try to find an RPG that doesn't suffer from it). As if that
wasn't enough, you can also capture enemies and learn their spells if you
beat them a few times (this requires yet another minigame). Don't forget that
this is an actual RPG - we've just covered the fights but the overworld aspect
is just as developed - quests, shopping, capturing cities, earning money,
building, leveling up...you'd be hard-pressed to find a game with more depth.
There is also quite an extensive story which seems kind of wasted on this game;
though some of the characters are funny (Drong!) or mysterious
(Darkhunter). Add to that nice, colorful animations and fitting sound
effects, and you've got a gem of a game. HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Puzzle Quest 2 (DS)
Forget about everything you've read above, because the sequel killed it.
Puzzle Quest 2 suffers from all the common modern pitfalls such as
casualization, hand-holding, equalization and simplicity (the bad kind). There
is not that much difference in enemies anymore - at least in terms of how you
fight them. Every fight feels the same and during the time I've played, I
haven't ever felt in danger of losing. The addition of the action points
mechanic makes it way too easy to beat up enemies, since you can just whip out
your sword or whatever anytime if you've matched enough action gems. In fact, a
good strategy is to simply ignore mana and skulls altogether and focus on the
action points. This removes most of the depth such as "do I choose this spell or
that spell" or "I need this amount of mana for this spell which will create an
opening". Just get action points for your OP weapon and smash. The "tutorial"
never ends since you get an annoying arrow showing you which gems to match.
There is no punishment for illegal moves anymore, either. The original had a
different stat for every type of magic resistance - here, they are all one -
removing depth and variety. Quests are done terribly since the slight "open
world" aspect is replaced by dungeons with a quest marker telling you where to
go. And you have to use the menu to switch quests anytime you want to finish
another one, since you need the quest marker to get around - in contrast to the
original which allowed you to do many quests at once and you knew exactly where
they are at any point in time. Forget about capturing enemies or using them as
mounts - instead you get a shitty looting minigame. Gone are castle sieges and
item crafting. Graphics, animations and the soundtrack all took a huge hit as
well. In short: this is yet another example of a sequel that completely misses
the point of the original, and ends up destroying everything which was good
about it. Again, I didn't play it for long, so it's possible it gets better, but
for now my verdict is to AVOID!
Gladiator Begins (PSP)
Welcome to the Roman Colosseum in a unique fighting game where you are a
fucking gladiator, looking to ascend from slavery (and a one million debt that
you apparently have by sheer existence). To accomplish this, you will need to
perform in shows (really, fights) hosted by four different patrons to
which you will be individually introduced at the beginning. Later in the game,
you will be able to choose which shows to partake in - earning you that
particular patron's trust, eventually allowing you to reject all the others and
finish up your chosen patron's storyline. To counter a common criticism of
modern games, you can just press the Start button to skip any dialogue if
you don't care about it - but it is actually mildly interesting.
The game begins with character creation, with just the basic stuff like body
type, skin color, head and hair style. Then, you get to distribute your stat
points between Strength, Vitality and Endurance which will
significantly affect how you play the game (don't worry though, you receive
additional points after winning shows). The tutorial will introduce you to the
basic controls, movement, equipment usage and the four different game styles.
Gladiator Begins, despite looking simple, is actually very deep and suffers
from not explaining things well enough, I think (and after getting it, you're
already quite far into the game - though there is New Game+ that is actually
worth playing). This could also be considered somewhat of an advantage, though;
as it leaves more to discover for the player (I'd at least like refining objects
to be explained better - I only figured that out at the end of the game pretty
much).
So let us talk about the variety the game has to offer. First of all, the
fighting styles: Single weapon (alone or with a small shield), Big shield, Dual
weapon and Pugilist (using fists and kicks). All four differ in regards to your
speed and offensive / defensive capabilities (for example, Big Shield style
slows you way down but protects from most attacks that even a small shield
can't). More importantly, you can level up the styles by using them, which
will provide access to lots of unique skills that each style has in addition to
the four basic movements (attack head, legs, left side or right side). You can
knock off equipment which - funnily enough - can change the entire fight into
"defend the helmet" since the AI opponents will usually be very eager to get it
back as fast as possible. You can also change your style in the middle of the
fight by losing your equipment, dropping it on purpose or picking something else
up from the ground. Nothing prevents you from doing something dumb like using a
helmet as a shield, either.
The equipment game is almost as deep as the actual fighting. Each item has three
basic stats (Attack, Defense and Weight), but it also differs in
range (hey, we've got spears here!) and the style which will use it (small
versus big shield, or swords / maces etc versus stuff you put on fists).
Equipment can be bought or grabbed from the defeated enemies (amount depending
on how much your performance has satisfied the crowd - another big mechanic
which would take some time to explain). These "stolen" items are usually better
than the store-bought ones and you can find some blessed stuff there, which can
be refined. Some of the blessed items will actually increase your gladiator's
stats and by combining them with other blessed items you can truly create a
Super Soldier. Mastering that skill takes some time, and - since you can bring
your equipment back for a new playthrough - makes New Game+ a completely
different experience.
The shows themselves consist of a few different modes - Team Battle, where
you get another guy to fight with against others, Survival where you just
got to live for a certain time; and Battle Royale where you have to be the
last man standing. There are also some really tough boss fights and you can take
their unique equipment as well as moves after winning. So, as you can see, the
game is really fucking deep; and I didn't even mention all of it. The crowd
pleasing mechanic, back attacks, combos, dodging, stamina management,
positioning (which matters heavily in this game)...Mortal Kombat and
Street Fighter can go hide in a corner with their shallowness.
What more is there to be said? The game is fucking amazing and has captured
my full attention from start to finish which rarely happens these days. There is
nothing bothersome against the graphics, soundtrack, and animations either - in
fact, with seemingly hundreds of character and equipment models - the attention
to detail is insane. You can even fight women which only appear as bosses and
are actually some of the strongest ones; as well as a fucking elephant at one
point in the game. In summary - drop everything you're doing and play
Gladiator Begins right now! HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Kingdom of Paradise (PSP)
A samurai game! Let me jump straight to the best part of it - the combat system.
During your adventure, you pick up Bugei (combos) and Kenpu (movements
from which Bugei are made). To use a combo, you need all the Kenpu it
consists of. There also exist a few Freestyle Scrolls where you can mix up
all the Kenpu you've got - this is the best part of the game. Unfortunately,
how this combat system fits with everything else isn't so stellar. For example,
you can get an extremely strong Bugei very early on, and that kind of
discourages further experimentation. Enemies have weaknesses, but that is never
really relevant since they just aren't very strong. There are only a few fun
fights (like the tiger boss) and the enemy variety is pretty underwhelming (for
most of the game, you only fight regular samurai) and you beat all of them
pretty much the same way. You can throw your sword, but it's useless except for
the single boss specifically made for that gimmick. Kingdom of Paradise is
extremely easy, and the Chi Arts (special attacks hitting a wide area) just
further break it wide open.
How about non-combat related things? Voice acting is high quality, movement
animations are amazing, decent soundtrack. Lots of dialogue - even regular
NPCs have several different lines that change across the game. As for the bad
stuff - lots of places that you should be able to enter, but can't; how dare I
go into this patch of grass that the developers decided is off limits. The game
is extremely story heavy - and it's very confusing, almost as if the
designers tried to tack on every little thing that came into their mind. Even at
the end of the game, I still didn't feel like I got what it was really about.
But I'll let you judge it for yourself. It can be hard to progress in the game
in certain cases, because you often need to talk to random people a few times in
a row. Items are pretty useless aside from the end-game where there are lots of
status-inducing enemies; enough potions can be picked up that you don't need to
worry about buying them. A certain NPC mentions that you can freely pick up
stuff from barrels in towns - but he forgot to mention those where the
inhabitants randomly put bombs in (how do they access the stuff in them, then?).
All in all, Kingdom of Paradise is pretty underwhelming. The Bugei
system along with the animations and voice acting carries it. It's
disappointing, because the concept is cool and I think the devs could have done
much more with it. How about let me jump wherever - if it looks like I can reach
there, I should be able to. Have enemies which require specific Kenpu -
maybe some high jumping ones or ground ones like snakes. Don't just make
everything beatable with a single Freestyle Scroll. Put more status-inducing
enemies - maybe even traps. Let me play more defensively, if I want to; instead
of just clicking the block button - have dodging moves, counter-attacking
moves, etc. The samurai style is extremely fun - but you can't just ignore the
obvious possible improvements. Clean up the story - it had potential - but
clearly tried to do too much while not making it well understandable. Make the
game longer - though it buries you with story, you barely have the opportunity
to get attached to the characters. I was considering giving this game the Not
Recommended rating, but that would be harsh when a turd such as Class of
Heroes also got one. Though Kingdom of Paradise does not have glaring
flaws - it lacks enough redeeming qualities for a recommendation, either;
therefore, the rating is Somewhat recommended.
Ninjatown (DS)
Demons are trying to get your cookie recipe and you absolutely cannot let that
happen! To accomplish that, you build Ninja huts and let the Ninjas destroy the
enemies looking to get through. Sounds simple but there is quite a bit of depth
in this game - lots of variety in Ninjas and demons, with different kinds being
more effective against certain types of enemies. You get cookies for every
killed demon and can use that to upgrade the buildings or buy new ones. Then
there is the strategy of where to put which kinds of Ninjas - for example, you
don't want the slow, strong ones right where enemies appear, since they will
just skip them. Instead, you put the fast ones first, which will make the demons
stop to fight - then the damage-dealers can come to beat them up. There are
also power-ups you can use in case of emergencies, when your Ninja army just
isn't enough. You get rated for your performance at every level, and getting the
best rank can be quite tough. On the later levels it requires careful balancing
of the amount of buildings versus their strength (one super powerful ninja
isn't going to do much against a wave of demons); good resource management
(gotta save up sometimes), good timing (do I build the ranged ninjas this turn,
or can they wait?) and placement. This adds even more depth for "hardcore"
players who want A rank everywhere. Visual design is nothing to write home
about, though it's at least colorful and kind of humorous. On the other hand,
the audio is just annoying. There's also a little too much focus on
not-very-interesting story stuff. Whatever, the game is fun, varied and
challenging, and still worth checking out. Somewhat recommended.
Plants VS Zombies (DS)
Similar concept to the above - zombies are invading and you've got to rely on
your plants to stop them. That is where the similarities end though, because the
game is very much inferior. First of all, all the action happens on one
screen, instead of Ninjatown's...well, town. This is similar to the
difference between 2D and 3D shooters - regardless of what the former does, it
just won't recreate the benefits of the three dimensions. Though Plants VS
Zombies does try - there are lots of plant and enemy types, and later levels
introduce nighttime or different terrain. But the depth is still not so great
especially with some bad design decisions that the game makes. Sunflowers
are the only way to earn the currency required to buy plants, so any level will
start with trying to plant as many of them as possible, as early as possible.
Until the zombies start appearing, then you switch to the 100 Sun costing pea
shooters, or the free Puff shrooms (which actually do the same amount of
damage...though the range is shorter) when you get them. The developers
seemingly tried to combat this by introducing enemies such as the mirror-holding
zombie - or the pole vaulter which can jump over plants, but it doesn't do
enough. At least all the levels from the first two worlds are beatable by this
simple strategy plus a well-placed bomb plant if you get in trouble. You can
safely ignore many of the fun plants such as the Chomper or the
Hypno-shroom.
Another bad design decision is the requirement to wait between buying plants
of the same kind. This is just a fake way to increase difficulty - similar to
shooters just adding more HP to their enemies - because it was clearly beyond
the devs to require actual strategy to beat the levels. There is also no
rating system to reward more hardcore players. The game clearly does have a soul
in it - the enemies are well designed, have humorous descriptions and funny
voices (Brains!!!), plus it doesn't bother you much before jumping into
gameplay. All in all, Plants VS Zombies can be fun to just whip out for a
few plays, but don't expect too much from it. It's so sad - it seems trivial to
improve this game - simply make the fun plants actually required to win,
instead of being able to rely on just the basic shooters. Edit: long time
since I've cared about games, but I was rereading this and decided to bump up
the rating. There is only one significant flaw in this game, which otherwise is
really solid - and much better than trash like Class of Heroes which I gave
the same rating. Therefore, Somewhat recommended.
Hitman GO: Definitive Edition (PS Vita)
Agent 47 is back on the Vita! Except this game has very little to do with
the actual series. You take turns moving your piece through a board and your
objective is to either reach a certain spot, or kill a target. Already here we
find the first hiccup, which is that turns work inconsistently - usually,
you move first and all the enemy pieces after you (so your action takes
precedence). But if you step on a teleporter, an enemy can move in and kick you
out before you are able to teleport (his action taking precedence). And, if your
move would get you killed by a laser guy, but an enemy would block it in the
same turn, you won't be killed (both actions taking place at the same time).
None of this is explained anywhere and can only be found through trial and error
- which is how most of the game works as well. During the first 4 worlds
there are precious few levels where you have to do any thinking at all. The
fifth and sixth one, as well as the ones based (very loosely...) on Silent
Assassin and Blood Money are somewhat better; disguises appear more often
and there are more levels that require you to actually stop and think.
Autistically counting turns is also required less often. Too bad that you unlock
these sets only after completing the first 4 worlds, when you might already be
bored.
Every level except the first few has two additional challenges like "don't kill
anyone" or "reach target in X turns or less", for which you get additional
points that help unlock the next worlds. The problem with this is that often,
there's only a one step difference between the two "solutions" - so you have to
replay a level just to make that one move differently (cheap way to artificially
lengthen gameplay time). To say something positive about this game - it does
the "tutorial through gameplay" thing very well. Not a word is ever said while
new mechanics are introduced, and a level usually focuses on only one of them,
letting you become familiar. There are different types of enemies like the
"bouncers" that don't move until you come close to them, the runners, the dogs
that follow you through the level, etc. Some other fun mechanics include guns
and disguises, which allow you to bypass a certain type of enemy -
unfortunately, this Hitman staple only appears for a few levels - what a
blunder! Anyway, that is where the good news ends. There's no soundtrack to
speak of (except the few times they play Ave Maria theme lifted from Blood
Money), animations are basic (they couldn't even show 47 Fiber Wiring a
target?), graphics something out of Windows 98, sound effects limited, no story,
no depth. All in all, this is a mobile-tier barely-a-game which claimed the
name of Agent 47 to increase sales (expected, since it was actually made
for mobile first). Could be fun to pass a few minutes while waiting for someone,
but if you expect something more than you would from Candy Crush, then
prepare to be disappointed. Not recommended.
Contact (DS)
The "game" begins with a scientist running around for half a fucking hour,
talking about some useless shit, asking dumb questions and annoyingly "breaking
the fourth wall". Then, when you can finally begin to control your character,
you walk up to a sheep which starts doing damage to you even though it doesn't
even look like an enemy. And "your" character fights it without your input. Now
you're at low HP and the scientist complains. So you've got to avoid the enemies
while you go to wherever. And that's when I stopped playing. There might still
be a good game hiding behind this nonsense, but first impressions matter,
and Contact doesn't make a good one. AVOID!
Corpse Party (PSP)
A showcase of how not to do game development. It begins with talking,
talking and more talking that isn't interesting at all and could fit in three
times less words. Oh, something came out of the door! Is that a ghost? Is this
where the action begins? No, it was a student making a joke. And all the lead up
suggested it was a ghost...this would have been such a good opportunity to end
the damn talking and get interesting, but it was wasted. And now, more useless
talking. Then, you get introduced to all the other students - the worst
possible way to present the game's characters; and you probably won't remember
any of it. Finally, I can control my character! Okay, let me walk here...fuck,
something interrupts me. Let me guess, it's more fucking talking. I've stopped
playing when this multiverse shit got revealed, since in addition to all the
other crap in this game, I just hate this trope. There is no soundtrack or
anything at all to keep you engaged. As usual, it's possible the game gets
better later, but I won't get the "opportunity" to discover it. By the way, I
don't hate visual novels - Corpse Party just happens to suck. You will see
later how a good one differs from this. AVOID!
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
I can't get caught... Not like this! Gotta find someone to pin this on...
someone like... him!
Not only are you thrown in the middle of a murder right at the beginning of the
game, but it's also your friend that is being accused - and your job, as a
rookie defense attorney, is to clear him of the charges. I can't think of a
better way to start the game if the goal is to get someone "in the mood" - and
as Contact shows, first impressions matter. After the introduction, you get to
talk to Mia (your boss), who tells you she's impressed that you're taking on a
murder trial so early in your career. See? This is the game telling you shit
is serious right at the start, which - along with the perfectly fitting
soundtrack - keeps you focused. Then you meet up with your accused friend who's
crying, since it's his girlfriend that was killed. That's it, two main
characters quickly introduced through gameplay, and we can begin the trial. Your
friend tells his version of events, the prosecutor says he's lying and summons
a witness - who is the actual murderer. Here you learn how to challenge the
witness' statements and use evidence to disprove them - tutorial done through
gameplay, the holy grail. When you make the correct challenge, the witness
will get visibly anxious and modify his version of events, until that is
untenable and he's either kicked out or convicted of the crime if he's guilty.
Okay, you won the first case, what's next?
The pressure is on! Your boss got killed and the name of her sister was written
with blood on a piece of paper near her body. So now your task is to defend the
sister from the charges. Here you will learn the second part of the game -
gathering evidence from the crime scene and by talking to people. You get
introduced to another two of the main characters - Maya, your boss' sister,
and Detective Gumshoe. Now Phoenix Wright becomes a true adventure game
of "go here, talk to this guy, go back, show the other guy this item". But it is
kept engaging all throughout. In fact, if you're looking for a game that
impacts you emotionally, you cannot get better than Ace Attorney. All of
this is supported by an amazing soundtrack that somehow always manages to fit
the situation, great and often funny animations, well designed characters and
dialogue, immersive stories...This is how you do visual novels, my friends!
You'd never think a game inside the courtroom could be so fun. Now drop
everything you're doing and go play this fucking game! Edit: actually, I
think I'll be dropping these a level. Despite them being fun and well-made, I
think they're just too barren to earn the best rating. So, changing it to
Recommended.
Ace Attorney: Justice for All (DS)
Replayed this again. Case 1 is kind of boring but it does introduce the
mechanics well. And, I like how Phoenix lost memory at the beginning, since it
provides an explanation as to why things even have to be explained. Case 2 is
great, and lays the foundation for the entire story of T&T. Though, at one
point, you had to press all statements and then admit you don't have evidence,
which was kind of counter-intuitive. At that moment, Franziska's over-confidence
was the only thing that allowed the trial to even continue, as the Judge
thought the case had already been decided and there was no more need to listen
to testimonies. There should have been a better way to handle that situation,
especially since at least two of Lotta's statements were obvious dead ends, so
there was no reason to press them. Some time later, Franziska again decides
to continue the trial when she could have ended it...I guess she didn't want the
win badly enough. And that's my only gripe with this case.
Next comes the weirdest, dumbest, saddest, most tragic and pointless case in the
entire series. Everyone hates it, really...but not diggy :D. Hey, if you read
my site, you should have already figured out how much value "popular opinion"
holds. And as usual, it has totally missed the mark here, because the Big Top
is the best in the entire series. It does a few things no other case dares
to, which is what even makes it noticable among the pile of "regular" cases
(even for the people who hate it). But I don't want to spoil the greatness of
it, so I won't reveal any details; let's just say I had to stand up and walk
around to process the emotions this case has given me a few times - which I
rarely do otherwise. EDIT: changed my mind (hover to unspoil):
Anyway, I feel like I have to explain just why Big Top is so good, and why the
common criticisms fall flat. People complain about Moe and Ben being boring,
unfunny, etc. But that's how it's supposed to be! Did they miss the part about
Max being hired to fix the circus' quality? If the other performers were great,
there wouldn't be a need to fix anything, and the whole case would have no
basis. Moe himself says that after 20 years, his act is getting stale; it seems
the critics just weren't paying attention during the game.
Next, Max fulfills the role of "defendant you're supposed to dislike" very well.
His arrogance seems off the charts at first. He is disliked by all other circus
members and even gets into fights with them. Later, though, it's revealed to
have an empathetic basis since he really took his act to heart, and was annoyed
the other circus members didn't care as much as him. Quite an interesting
development for what seemed to be a simple asshole at first.
Another thing people complain about is the "love triangle" with Regina. Don't
they really see it's simply a setup to show her as being oblivious? Since she
doesn't seem to have figured out that Trilo isn't a real person. And her being
oblivious later provides an explanation as to why she put that note on the
bulletin board, and didn't realize it was actually meant for her. This is
how she was able to avoid getting killed in place of the Ringmaster. And, her
charm explains why Bat even simped for her in the first place, leading up to the
disastrous events of this case. Everything has a point if you just pay
attention.
Now, Acro is another character that fulfills his role - that of the sympathetic
villain - perfectly. People complain that Regina being oblivious wasn't a reason
for killing her? Was Godot justified in killing Misty just because she looked
like Dahlia at that moment? Was von Karma justified in killing Gregory just
because he gave him a penalty, ruining his perfect record? But yet, those kills
happened - and if they didn't, this game series wouldn't exist. You can also
find much more petty stuff people kill each other for in real life. Acro did
actually have a better reason for murder than most others, since it was revenge
for losing his own brother. Don't forget he was also injured in the same
accident, adding another motive. And yet, he ended up being a villain that can't
even be happy about what he's done, since he not only didn't kill the person he
wanted to, he didn't even manage to generate any bad feelings in her. Again,
Regina being oblivious fits here very well.
This case is supposed to be tragic! And it does its job perfectly! It feels like
none of this had to happen, and yet a tiny seemingly harmless dare set off
a chain reaction of doom. Consider how the circus had enough of its problems
already, and then they suddenly got a murder to deal with. A murder of the most
important person working there, and also the nicest and least deserving victim.
And, the person that was killed wasn't even the one that was supposed to die,
adding to the tragedy. Worse than that, the killer actually loved his victim, so
much that he considered it his life mission to repay him. Then - at the end -
Regina got dragged to the trial and had her innocence ripped apart, piece by
piece. This is the only case in the series where I felt that everything has been
destroyed...and for nothing. After all, the circus lost not just the ringmaster
but two great performers (Acro and Bat), and well, the atmosphere has probably
been killed forever. Though at the end the characters are forcing themselves to
stay positive, I feel like they are just coping. I also like that the case
doesn't drag itself for too long and there aren't any moments where you have to
do something arbitrary or nonsensical. Even the bust thing - though it stretches
physics - is pretty obvious in the end. I am actually surprised the devs put so
much care into a case that isn't related to the main story at all. I guess the
main reason Big Top is my favorite is the sheer amount of tragedy stuffed into
it.
After that comes the beloved last case, which I guess rivals the first game's
Karma case in quality. Blah blah, who cares - it's all about the amazing Big Top
that came before it. Don't get me wrong, it's still a nice finish to this game
it just doesn't strike as hard as it should have. It does have something
unique and interesting, though - namely that your client is guilty of hiring an
assassin to remove his rival, so for the first time up until this point, you are
forced to drop your "always believe in your client" principle. Oh, and I almost
forgot about the excellent Core 2002 theme that plays during the
reveal. And yeah, there are only 4 cases compared to the first game's five.
But, enough quality has been stuffed into them that this isn't actually the big
issue it would seem like, at first.
Aside from that, two great new features get introduced. First - the
Psyche-Locks, which appear when someone's trying to hide a secret from you
(and you can break them to reveal it). This ensures the player actually pays
attention to what's going on in the story, else he won't be able to progress.
And second - being able to present people's profiles in addition to just the
evidence pieces - which simply makes sense in a courtroom game ("hey, it's
this guy that was there!") and makes me wonder why it wasn't there in
PW:AA already. It also brings with it quite a bit of additional dialogue;
you can ask anyone what they think about a certain person, which is sometimes
required to progress. And so, I'd say this game is a mildly significant
improvement over the first one, but not enough to send it to the highest tier
(which I'm not actually sure if any game in this series can reach, even in
principle). Therefore, Recommended.
Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations
Unfinished, might not be in near future.
You should know the drill by now. This is probably the best entry in the entire
series, with the highest floor for case quality - even the intro case isn't just
a tutorial to drag yourself through and promptly forget. This game really
decided to ramp up the tension compared to all the others, which I really like.
In the last phase of case 2, you get to choose one statement from 11, and if
you pick the wrong one, you eat a full bar penalty and the culprit walks free.
That will make you pay attention during the proceedings, ha ha! Case 3 does it
even better, with the culprit's entire testimony section giving you penalties
for bothering him with bullshit, because he's really late for that bus already,
and youse payin! In fact, he's only in court because the mighty Godot managed to
drag him there; the Godot who's built up to be the "cool" character of the
series - and well, he is cool. He's not intimidated by anyone's tricks and
has like a hundred quotable quotes. This game has seemingly the widest set of
characters - ranging from cringe, funny, scary, insane, insecure, manipulative,
simpy, and combinations of those traits. Devs really cranked up the character
design to the max here. I guess it's expected since T&T was supposed to be the
last entry in the series. But of course, they smelled the success and went and
designed further games, like with Pokemon.
Anyway, I really liked case 3 but saw some holes in it, like why did Viola even
allow you to snoop around the stuff in her office. Maybe it could be explained
by her not really wanting to protect the culprit deep down, but that's
stretching it. Then during the trial, the culprit admits he was in the
restaurant because he had a box of matches with their logo in his office. I can
think of at least one way to explain it, namely that Viola brought them in, or
maybe some of his clients left their own there. I felt like there were a few
other times he ran his mouth pointlessly, too - but maybe that's just his thing.
Even though his crime was planned and executed amazingly well, he was just too
rash during the actual showdown. I would have enjoyed an Alba-like marathon, to
be honest - but I guess you can't expect a tiger to be able to restrain itself
too much.
There is one more interesting thing about this case, namely how was the culprit
able to impersonate Phoenix Wright originally? Doesn't he look, speak, do
everything different? That's what the surface level thinking would tell you,
anyway. But if you look at real life, people keep falling for all kinds of
scams, even really stupid ones. If you read this site, I'm sure I don't have to
give you examples. If you limit yourself to impersonations only, then still,
popular people have body doubles. Everyone has fallen for the Stephen Hawking
scam for a very long time, funnily enough. I wouldn't have even suspected him to
be a fake, if Miles Mathis didn't blow it wide open. Anyway, it's not so insane
to me that the culprit was able to impersonate Phoenix Wright with only
superficial similarities. A lot can be explained by having a tan, or just being
rusty, etc. For me, this gives the case yet another layer of depth (that the
devs themselves didn't necessarily intend), namely exposing just how easy it is
to fool the masses if you put in the minimum of effort. And how unlikely people
are to stick their heads out to challenge the common group belief and possibly
embarrass themselves.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS)
I'll throw it straight out - compared to the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, this game
is a total disappointment. The protagonist is about as interesting as Linux
distro wars. Not only that, they don't even let him really use his signature
Chords of Steel - wouldn't it be cool if we could scare the witnesses or
even the prosecution into submission sometimes? I mean, AA isn't supposed to be
a super serious simulation of courtroom proceedings - so let's have some fun
(that they did have with obnoxious Phoenix objections or bluffs during the
Trilogy, or Franziska's whips, etc). The first case has Phoenix steal
the spotlight from our new attorney almost completely - and the case itself
drags on too much for a tutorial and has Phoenix too high and mighty. Second
one has the annoying Wocky Kitaki, the student guy whose name I forgot and
an even worse Ema Skye to deal with (just let me investigate, no one cares
about your "muh science" shtick or your chips addiction - you're not important).
Not only that, but you have to do a bunch of arbitrary shit to progress that is
actually hard to figure out (in a tedious, not interesting way). In the third
case, the prosecution tries to pin the blame on a kid where it's obvious he
could not have done it - I mean the game itself tells you that when it says you
need strength and experience to even be able to use the murder weapon without
seriously injuring yourself. Yet almost the full case is wasted on this dead
end.
The full amount of cases is 4, and you'd think that at least the last one would
rival the Trilogy in quality - but of course it doesn't even come close to
doing that. Though it does resolve the stories of the important characters, it's
not very interesting in itself (but opens the door to the much better DD /
SoJ). The most interesting thing about it is how you're able to switch
between the present and the past for your investigation. Predictably,
Phoenix steals the spotlight from the useless Apollo again. The trial
part is absolutely terrible and ends on a low note with the main antagonist
freaking out about the stupid jurist system (he goes down meekly considering how
calm and analytical he seems). A new feature is introduced which allows
Apollo to watch for "tension" in witnesses and call them out on it,
revealing new information and progressing the trials. Problem is, it's
implemented terribly - the game tells you which testimonies you have to
"perceive" (but still have to guess the statement). Then you play a "minigame"
of watching a close-up of the witness and trying to find their nervous habit
while they're stressed. Often, the tells are completely irrelevant to the
character's personality - for example, Spark Brushel just randomly sweats
instead of doing something with his brush or nose. A better way to implement the
feature would be to have the tension visible in the main sprite. So is there a
positive about this game? I guess there are a few good characters like
Klavier, Trucy and Kristoph. Actually, forget it; I only really like
Trucy. Klavier is okay, and Kristoph isn't all that.
UPDATE June 2023: I haven't played video games for about two years, but
somehow got inspired to replay this now, because the stories still excite me -
or so I thought. And I was looking to screenshot some quotes. But I got reminded
again how terrible this game is, and couldn't even come close to finishing it.
How the fuck did Kristoph let himself get fucked so easily in the first case? He
acted like a rank-and-file criminal, instead of the big villain he was supposed
to be. He only got suspected in the first place because of using the phrase
bone china pate allegedly in reference to the victim's bald head. But I just
know that Manfred von Karma or Godot would have never let something so small be
used to indict them. Of course, Phoenix later introduced fake evidence into play
and Kristoph screamed like a child, then fucking let that slide. Again, no way
Karma would have let Phoenix off the hook for that. The weakly written or just
annoying characters and the arbitrary things you have to do to progress got
apparent once again. And the deleted ability to present profiles; holy shit,
let's make the adventure game even more short on gameplay than it already
is! Also, the Psycho Locks only appear in the last case; which has 7 of them,
compared to e.g 15 (breakable) of T&T and 12 of JFA. In those games, they start
early; this is a great decision because they enforce paying attention to stuff
that happens and getting immersed into the world - instead of just pressing
buttons. Well, I've ranted enough. This game is terrible, terrible,
terrible! Skip it and play the Trilogy (Switch version has updated visuals
and is the one I recommend these days) which I'm probably going to do again,
too. Not recommended.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
An Ace Attorney entry made into a true adventure game, where you walk around,
examine stuff, talk to people, etc. in an actual interactive world. Hey, there
is no more Phoenix (you play as Edgeworth) - so if you were getting tired of
him, you will feel right at home. There are also no courts, but you have
arguments "in the wild" in a similar manner. AAI introduces some of my favorite
characters (Lang, Kay, Badd) and features (Logic, Little Thief). I even love its
overreaching story which neatly joins all the cases - something I feel no other
game in this series does to this level. Yet I still have mixed feelings about
this game, just because there are clearly many loose ends surfacing when we
actually play it. Often, you have to press arbitrary statements so that a
similar one appears, instead of presenting evidence that should have already
sufficed (but there is nothing even close to the bullshit of the Machi dead-end
from Apollo Justice, don't worry). At one point, you even had to do this twice
in a row.
The cases can get confusing - especially case 3 with the switching sides, etc.
In case 5, we somehow never get to examine a map of the entire place (the way we
did e.g the Gatewater Hotel in JFA) - which again, makes that case somewhat
hard to understand. Annoyingly, the building contains an elevator, but we never
get to investigate it - even though later we learn that one of the guilty
parties used it; and we even get to pick it as a "place we missed" at one point
(and lose a life point if we do so...). I won't pretend that this game is easy
to beat without a manual. I still love case 5 though, with the seemingly
untouchable villain that tries every trick possible to stick around and stays
sure of himself right until the end. It is also the only villain that cannot be
beaten with exclusively regular methods.
I was too rash in my pronouncement of this game as being better than T&T at
first - though it probably is better than JFA. It is very ambitious with the
added features (that are also well executed) and a mild genre switch. The first
case received more care than in any other game, too, with an actually
interesting antagonist - but the kidnapping case is not that great. In fact, I
feel like none of the cases in Investigations reach true greatness (the level of
Big Top, Manfred von Karma or the last case of T&T) - so other things end up
having to carry it. Like the fact that you can get multiple bad endings if you
waste your entire "lifebar" by doing bad logical connections or presenting
irrelevant evidence (or making the main villain too impatient at one point).
Regular PW games have only one bad ending - that of the judge slamming the gavel
and screaming Guilty!. Another advantage of Investigations are of course the
added mechanics and being able to move around the world. The game has a great
soundtrack as expected from the series (every theme fits its character
perfectly, really; my favorite is the Lang one I guess). Still, AAI fails at
reaching the peak (in the end, I think it loses slightly to T&T in overall case
quality, character quality, and soundtrack - though it does have the lack of
filler cases over T&T), so it has to settle for the rating of Recommended.
Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (3DS)
The first installment of the series on the newer console, it unfortunately
succumbs to modern gaming diseases. You can only investigate certain places
(instead of everything - missing out on optional dialogue), you get told what
evidence to present to whom in order to progress (Notes menu),
Psyche-Locks are immediately unlockable without penalties (older titles made
you find evidence to be able to do that). What about the courtroom battles?
Casualized just like the investigations. Too often you're simply told what's
the suspicious statement - and even if you incur all five penalties (unlike
older titles, 20% is the maximum) - you can simply try again from the same
point. As if the series wasn't short on gameplay anyway, they just had to
destroy the remnants...Okay, we've got the bad out of the way - let's focus on
the good. Soundtrack is good as is expected from the series. A fun mechanic
known as the Mood Matrix is introduced - Athena (the newly added defense
lawyer) has an ability to sense a witness' emotions, and you have to pick out
an emotion which conflicts with their testimony. Nice-looking 3D models of all
characters. Three well-developed, well-balanced defense lawyers - Phoenix
does not steal the spotlight anymore (like in Apollo Justice). Miles
Edgeworth is also back at the end, and Simon Blackquill might be the best
character in the whole series. Story is great and keeps you on your toes until
the end. All the cases are connected to finally reach an unexpected conclusion,
like in Trials and Tribulations. A few fully voiced cutscenes add to the
emotional engagement. I'd like to say that what Dual Destinies lacks in
gameplay, it gets back with the story - but it would not be entirely true.
Though the story is top-tier, the amount of casualization is simply too
much, and I cannot give the game a better rating than Somewhat
recommended.
Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS)
The most recent game in the series unfortunately suffers from the same
issues as Dual Destinies (except the fact that you can now "examine"
everything). Since nothing has changed in the gameplay, let me talk about the
story. Much of the game takes place in another country (Khurain), with
different customs. Like the law called the Defense Culpability Act which
makes lawyers suffer the same sentence as the accused if they fail to defend
them - which is why they all fled the country. The verdicts are made according
to Divination Seances, which can peer directly into the deceased's final
memories and are considered infallible. Phoenix Wright, of course, isn't
phased by all this and wins the first trial in 23 years. The goal of the game is
to overturn the unfair legal system in Khurain. Case 1 is pretty boring and
drags for way too long, but it is necessary to understand the rest of the game.
Second case is cool but unconnected to the main story - though it does shed
light on some events from the previous games. Case 3 is awesome with plenty of
twists and turns. Case 4 is totally irrelevant to the main story and bravely
fights for the title of the worst case in the series. But the last case
makes up for it all. It has everything: twists and turns, blackmail, in-fighting
between the main characters, tales of families being reunited and broken up
again, and finally - a revolution which brings down the Queen herself. Lots
of great characters are introduced (like Dhurke and, well...mainly
Dhurke), as well as an interesting mechanic of analyzing the victims' last
memories. All in all, there is not much to fault in the story itself, but as the
issues of Dual Destinies remain, the rating can only be Somewhat
recommended.
Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber (DS)
A different spin on the long-standing series of platformers. This time, the
focus is mainly on climbing instead of running and jumping on enemies, which
opens up venues of gameplay that simply are not available in titles such as
Donkey Kong Country (though most of the game is still similar). The
always-funny Cranky Kong will guide you through the short tutorial, teaching
you the basic controls. He will keep appearing during the levels whenever any
new mechanic is presented, showing you how to use it (but you can ignore him if
you want to). The pacing of the game is great - you're not required to learn
everything at once but are also kept focused by regular introductions of new
stuff. Unlike most other platformers - like Mario, where enemies are out
there for you to easily stomp on or shoot - in DKJC, you are vulnerable,
and the game makes great use of this fact. Attacks are hard to execute (you can
only do it straight up from the ground, or while climbing which you need to aim
first), and even if you are accurate, you better wish you didn't hit the
enemy's stinger or some trap. Though usually the bad guys just follow their set
patterns, certain ones like the fish will launch a direct attack if you get
close. Often, it's smarter to just avoid the enemies - which reminds us more of
the Thief games than the usual platformers. Climbing alone is dangerous in
that if you fall (and that's very easy if you are attacking enemies or picking
up collectibles) you can either die or just have to climb up again, depending on
where you end up.
This brings me to my next important point and a great thing about the game:
you can choose your difficulty through gameplay. All the levels have the
KONG letters as well as five banana coins stashed around in various (usually
hard to reach) places, and depending on your skill you can try to pick them all
up at once, skip them or just clear the level a few times to get them all
eventually. Some levels make it really tough to pick certain letters, and if you
get one but die before leaving its section, you have to pick it up again,
wasting lives. And if a section has two hard to get collectibles, it might be
wise to only claim one of them unless you like seeing a Game Over screen.
Despite the simple controls and basic mechanics, the game manages to create a
lot of depth and variety out of them. For example flowers which you have to hold
that "shoot" you in a certain direction, as well as ghost enemies you have to
stop climbing for to avoid falling (so your usual way of movement is blocked) -
both based on the idea of being vulnerable. I'm only 26% through the game but
I'm already impressed with how much stuff it has managed to include. It truly
defines "doing a lot with little", unlike many other games that throw together a
million mechanics which ends up in a mess. Here, everything flows perfectly.
I did not even mention the sound and visual design, which are also top-tier. Nor
the various interesting minigames. There are secret stages you can reach if you
pick up all the oil barrels in a world, and these are really fucking hard
(again, choose your difficulty)! Truly, this game contains no flaws that I can
see, and if there are some, they would be nitpicks. A shame it's seemingly
never mentioned anywhere, when it should be topping the tier lists. I hope this
review will change the situation somewhat. Obviously, the rating is HEAVILY
RECOMMENDED!
Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone (PSP)
It is rare that I come back to finish a game long after dropping it, but Yggdra
Union has captivated me - and remained in my memory - for many reasons. So why
did I drop it in the first place, then? Well, the game is very long and there is
a lot to focus on in it. Compared to more "accessible" games (such as
Cuphead, which I was also playing at the time), it can drain you pretty
fast. However, I knew I would eventually come back to it due to its quality and
uniqueness. Without further ado:
Let's start with the tutorial. There's no dedicated tutorial mode; any time a
new mechanic is introduced, one of your characters explains it to you. Then, you
get a few maps to familiarize yourself with it. The unique thing here is that
certain mechanics will not actually work (even though there is no in-game
reasons they shouldn't - e.g formations or skills) until the developers decide
it's time to reveal them - which shows intention to reduce the amount of stuff
the player has to take in at once. This is surely much better than burying the
player with an avalanche of information would be (the way most games do it),
especially with how complicated the game can get. And, Yggdra Union even
manages to make the tutorials fun, with some humorous dialogue. Of course,
you can skip them if you'd rather deal with things on your own.
The meat of the game - the combat system - is a work of art. You don't
actually do much during the actual battle besides watching nice animations and
firing off a skill sometimes. All the fighting is really done through
preparation - which includes choosing the characters that enter the map, giving
them equipment, possibly recovering their morale (hit points), as well as
picking a set of cards (I have a soft spot for those, since my favorite NES game
included card boss fights) that will be available for usage. After you're done
with those steps, you move your characters on the map, pick which enemy (or
multiple) to attack, then watch the fight happen.
The reason I call it a work of art is that all the elements fit well together.
The vast majority of games give you a bunch of options, then make all of them
not fucking matter - but not Yggdra Union. You need to pick the right
characters for the map - else you get fucked by the terrain. Then you need to
position them right to actually stand on the beneficial spots when attacking.
Formations allow you to attack several times in a turn; but the opponent uses
those too, and if they have a bigger formation, you will lose units every
subsequent battle. This can end up with one of your characters being ganged up
on, losing all their morale, and dying. Of course, movement is limited to the
amount your card allows, so it is not as easy to create a good formation. The
amount of cards you can bring is also limited, and if you waste all their
movement, you lose. But you might also want to visit all the towns or other
places to get information, items, etc. Which can waste a good card or destroy
your formation and make you vulnerable. And the opponent can sometimes attack
from different directions, fucking up your formation. Then you have to consider
the weapon affinities, items, skills used, etc. All of this can get pretty
demanding, and you can't really execute it perfectly. But the game's difficulty
forces you to do it well enough - forget about just being able to barge in with
your OP characters. With everything you do in this game, there is a tradeoff;
which is a great game design approach that's really hard to do correctly - but
Yggdra Union has managed it.
There are also many ways to play the game. Again, the amount of cards you can
bring to a map is limited, and they get powered up by usage. So, you must choose
which cards you want to focus on in a playthrough; trying to power them all up
is a sure way to lose. And so, you have to give up some skills in the end, which
will make you worse against some opponents that would be weak to those skills.
Equipment has two possible uses - recovering your character's morale, or
actually equipping the item. This is yet another element that Yggdra Union
nails compared to most other games. Equipment has a defined amount of maps it
will work on, and after that it breaks and disappears. You have to consider
which item is best for a particular map, knowing you can't afford to waste it.
If you don't think you're going to ever use an item, you can recover someone's
morale with it (and different characters respond differently to various items,
according to their likes and dislikes, I guess). If you lose all morale, your
character dies, and that can mean a game over screen if one of the conditions
was to keep that character alive for that map. Most other games fuck this
element up, making equipment indestructible and able to be switched around at
will - which means you can abuse an overpowered item forever. I could analyze
all the other parts of the battle system too, but I'd need to write a book - and
I still have other things I want to talk about with this game.
For example, the characters are fucking awesome. Each one has his own
personality, full voice acting, nice sprite work, three different soundtracks
(!), lots of dialogue including specific introductions and enemy responses
(whereas most games would stick something generic for everyone). The story is
cool but can be hard to understand at first, because most of it is revealed
later in the game. It's easy to get attached to some of your enemies when you
see the determination with which they're trying to kill you; your main enemy
even annoyingly avoids death by a hair the first few times you beat him. Later,
your characters begin to doubt all the bloodshed they've involved themselves in,
which can generate some emotional responses from the player (at one point, you
actually fight the soul of a major character you've killed earlier in the game).
You can, of course, skip all the story stuff with not much change to the actual
gameplay. Optional characters can be recruited if you satisfy some
requirements. All of them also have specific strengths and weaknesses - such as
terrain, unique skills, or weapons - adding to the replayability (since you
can't manage to level them up enough for all of them to be useful). Hidden items
exist in various places on the map, adding to the possible playstyles (do I
waste my movement trying to find items, or just destroy the enemy ASAP, for the
possible Quick Clear bonus?). After you finish the game, you unlock the hard
mode that is actually hard (from the short bit I've managed to play).
UPDATE: fuck, that was an understatement if I ever saw one. The hard mode
totally kicks your ass - no wonder it's hidden at first since I doubt anyone
could handle it. But it makes the game even better when you do unlock it. The
most important change is that morale is not recovered between levels, making
the avoidance of battle losses that much more crucial. The cards that you
thought were useless (Refreshment, Sanctuary, damage...) are now essential; you
could beat the normal mode with just a few cards - not anymore. Equipment choice
becomes much deeper, since the "wasting" of even good items on morale recovery
becomes a realistic possibility (a dead warrior with great equipment is still
fucking dead!). Yggdra Union is one of the few games that I know of where
the unlockable hard mode is actually worth playing.
So does this game have any flaws? I guess the fact that you can't see all the
information before entering a map (e.g enemy weapons). Some stuff is also not
explained adequately by the tutorials, leaving you to discover it by yourself
(e.g about equipping items). But even with the mechanics being revealed at a
slow pace, there's still a lot to take in, which can overwhelm many players. AI
is shit in many ways, often breaking their formations for no reason and wasting
their Rage Bar on skills that can't affect you. The most annoying issue
with Yggdra Union, though, are the scripted sequences. I don't mind those
in general, except the fact that certain characters are protected during certain
situations in the game. This means you might waste your movement and morale
trying to kill someone, only to realize at the end that he's unkillable at that
moment! And by then, you might have already destroyed your chances of winning
that map. All because a dev decided you must absolutely wait to get help from
someone, when you could have easily beaten those opponents by yourself at that
point. I get that the devs wanted to advance the story, but it could be done
more organically. Oh, and the difficulty takes a dive near the end of the game,
but I guess this is unavoidable when you're playing well. I really wanted to
give this game the best rating, because the flaws are insignificant and the
uniqueness and quality of the game are very praiseworthy. Actually, fuck it -
what was I thinking? No question about it - this game does deserve a rating of
HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Etrian Odyssey (DS)
A mysterious labyrinth has been discovered under the town of Etria and
suddenly became a tourist attraction. The Chief - then - orders its
exploration, bringing popularity and funds to the dying city. You - of course -
end up eventually leading the way, getting where no one's been to before and
uncovering the labyrinth's darkest secrets. Though the plot isn't the focus at
all (you could easily ignore it and barely notice), what is there is well set up
and will move you emotionally a few times.
So what does Etrian Odyssey offer over the other games of the genre? First
of all, it requires constant focus for many reasons - the chief one being
that you have to draw your own map! Yes - finally, the Nintendo DS touch
screen has a purpose besides gimmicks or being a shoddy replacement for real
controls. If you fail to draw the map properly, you will not know where to go
later and can even get yourself killed if you didn't mark some important foes.
About FOEs...that is an actual name of a particularly strong enemy class. This
is another reason for EO's attention requirement, because you need to
carefully watch their movements to be able to avoid them (and you really don't
want to fight them early on). Later, you can come back to beat them up for
experience points and to possibly claim some great equipment.
The item system of Etrian Odyssey is another very strong point in its favor.
Each monster has up to three defined drops upon being defeated, with some of
them appearing only if it was killed in a certain way (such as by a fire
attack). When you sell enough of them to the shop in Etria, the craftsman
can begin forging the items out of the bought materials (most other similar
games fuck this up by making it useless to kill mobs except to gain a paltry
amount of experience; their drops are only a nuisance). This gives huge
incentive to explore the lower parts of the labyrinths as soon as possible in
order to meet new monsters and take their drops. This - of course - brings a
certain amount of danger, since the new monsters will be likely stronger or
attack in unexpected ways (risk versus reward - a principle of good game
design). The variety of those is massive and each fight brings with it a
different challenge. Whereas you can power through most RPGs, forget about that
in Etrian Odyssey . You will meet monsters resistant or even immune to your
attacks or ones that will turn your huge attack stat against you with confusion.
You will be put to sleep, poisoned, blinded, have your stats reduced, magic
nullified, skills disabled and will even witness monsters working together to
beat you down. Etrian Odyssey can be very unforgiving if certain
preparations are not taken, which is where we come to the best feature of this
game...
...Which is, of course, the setting up of your party. You've got 7 classes
available at the beginning with two more added later game. As you can only take
five members with you, which ones to give up is an important decision. Do you
want reliable healing, stat boosting, magic to beat down physically defensive
enemies, skill disablers to have it easier against bosses or handy overworld
skills (allowing you to pick items up from the ground or avoid enemies, for
example)? It's all up to you. There are many viable combinations of classes
and their skills and way more non-viable ones. The game, fortunately, tells
you the skill trees right from the beginning so you can plan everything in
advance. But, you will likely have to modify your strategies while encountering
new stuff in the game. If you do screw this part up, you will find this game a
bitch to clear.
I'm not going to cover those in depth, but this game also includes standard RPG
features like quests, various events scattered around the labyrinth (with
positive or negative effects, or even both at once), treasures and lots of
well-written dialogue. All of this is supported by great visuals and soundtrack.
Battle themes are intense and the overworld themes change from comfortable to
eerie over the course of the game - just as more of the dark story gets
revealed. This game does have significant flaws though - some of the later
dungeons are grindy, luck-based, require way too much attention and just
annoying in general (all the damn traps, one wrong step and you have to do it
all over again). The game also doesn't tell you enough about how skills work so
it is really easy to invest in something that disappoints later and ruins your
strats. Most egregious, though, is the fact that you absolutely need certain
skills maxed out to deal with the endgame bosses and there is no way at all to
expect that beforehand. I still wanted to slap a HEAVILY RECOMMENDED rating
onto this one just because of all the things it does great (while everyone else
flops), but since the later installments of the series do fix the issues I've
stated (among other improvements), the final mark is a strong Recommended.
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS)
Sequel to the above, with a totally new labyrinth (including a really fun ice
sliding puzzle) and story. Includes many very welcome quality of life changes
such as more map icons, being able to touch the top-left corner of the map
screen to center on your current square, a better font, and most importantly -
the Suspend Save, which allows you to save your game anywhere when your
battery is going out. What about actual gameplay related changes?
Two new classes have been added - the War Magus and the Gunner. Now -
while the War Magus is pretty underwhelming (the War skills in particular
absolutely suck, while the Magus skills just mean healing) - they truly went all
out for the Gunner. Though he's frail, he can sit in the back row to do
massive damage. He has all the toys including binds for all bodyparts, multihit
shots, all elemental shots, and even a fucking party-wide status healing shot
(outclassing the Medic at medicine, can you believe it?). He can also stop
FOE movement on the field with his Haltshot (though it does not work on many
FOEs - a mistake IMO).
Old classes have been rebalanced, which in many cases just mean weakened -
such as the Survivalist, who now lacks many of his useful skills like
Trickery which used to increase evasion party-wide. At least the Ronin
is available right from the start, and he does perform pretty well. Later, you
also get the chance to unlock the Beast class, which is focused on
protecting the others and has its own specific equipment. However, it is
apparently bugged in that it uses the targeted character's defense (instead of
its own) for calculating damage.
Other changes in the game include certain weapons having elemental
enchantments. This adds depth to the choice of equipment - you might want to
scout the weaknesses of the monsters in the dungeon you're going to explore, and
pick the weapon accordingly. Sometimes, that might be the weaker one with the
appropriate element. There is an increased focus on avoiding FOEs instead of
fighting them. You get skills like the aforementioned Haltshot and
Racket to control them. What this also means, though, is that there is no
experience to be gained for fighting them, which is an absolutely terrible
decision. It's also pretty easy to get ambushed by them (even invisible ones are
included - get the Esc Up skill ASAP to prevent frustration! Though, if
you're facing the wall, you still can't flee - ugh) At least they still provide
materials for new equipment...
Not much more to say about this game. Keeps the good (while improving some -
labyrinth design is much better, for one) and - unfortunately - most of the bad.
Consider this an Etrian Odyssey 1.5, and you will enjoy it just like the
first one. Recommended.
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (DS)
If you're expecting yet another "expansion pack" tier sequel like Heroes of
Lagaard, you will be very disappointed in this game. Because it took what was
a rough, unpolished rock (EOI and EOII) and made it into a beautiful
diamond. It is the Hitman 2: Silent Assassin compared to Codename 47.
Or the Pokemon G/S/C compared to R/B/Y. So, what's so great about it? In
terms of convenience features, not much is new except an autopilot feature
(allows to automatically move according to a certain path, like a macro in text
editors, I guess), the game being faster and the clinic now residing in the
Inn. So let's move on to the meat of it:
The most important things in any dungeon crawler - the class and skill systems -
got totally revamped. All old classes have been dumped and replaced by nine
(+2 unlockables) way cooler and more balanced ones. Each class has a unique and
powerful class skill which gives all of them a personality. You can't put
points into stats like Vitality anymore which leaves more of them to focus
on the fun stuff - skills. Whereas EOI and II have mostly focused on boring
skills such as multihit or elements (which EOIII has too, of course), here
we have summoning beasts, cloning yourself, recovering HP / TP from your
allies' deaths or even killing them yourself to raise attack. We also finally
get an exploration focused class, with skills such as harvesting (no more
wasting points on Take, Chop or Mine for classes which would rather
fuck shit up), camping, avoiding encounters, nullifying traps or teleporting to
town. But since we only have five slots in combat, wouldn't the
overworld-focused Farmer bring us down? Well, yes and no. Though he does
have a few moderately-useful combat skills, the real feature that allows him to
perform even there is...
...Subclassing! Yes, that's the thing where (from the third stratum on) a
character can have two classes at once. This creates tremendous depth and allows
even the weak Farmer to gain access to buffs, debuffs and weapon masteries;
or a knight to become a fucking mage (this isn't a good combination, by the
way). Some cool things you can do with this are subclassing the slow and often
targeted Gladiator as Hoplite, gaining the Parry and Magic Parry
skills to draw and nullify the opponent's damage completely. Or the frail
Buccaneer can raise his evasion as the Ninja, and also perhaps clone
himself and get an additional chance at a head bind if he's running Rapier.
There are, though, way more chances to fuck it up than do it well, and the
game is absolutely unforgiving in this regard. The first time I encountered
subclassing I went Prince -> Shogun, which was a total failure since
both of those classes require a lot of skill points to be viable. The
bloodthirsty Shogun likes attacking every turn (some of his skills even
benefit from being frail - which is incompatible with Prince's high
Vitality), while the Prince prides himself on being the ultimate buffer.
They're totally incompatible classes and there's lots of such combinations.
Fortunately, you can reassign the subclass at the cost of five levels.
Another major added feature is forging equipment. Any weapon which has
enchantment slots can fill them with properties such as elemental damage,
infliction of binds or status, raising stats, filling the Limit gauge,
increasing critical hit rate, and others. To be able to do that, you need to
find a hammer related to the desired enchantment. You find those on the map or
earn for completing missions. Of course, this costs money and materials - and
the stronger the weapon, the more it takes to forge it. You can also buy
pre-forged weapons - but you cannot remove their enchantments. This feature
makes for way more variety for building parties. For example, if your party has
Ice and Volt damage, but no fire - you can fill that up with a
fire-enchanted gun. Or, if you lack a Wildling with Venomfly, you can
inflict poison with a specially crafted bow. A weapon can also have multiple
enchantments! A Volt-type gun which can bind the opponent's legs and also
blind him? Sign me up! Often, the best weapons are those with the strongest
enchantments, instead of highest base power.
As if that wasn't enough, Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City includes a
game within a game called Sea Exploration. Briefly - you equip a ship,
bring some food, and have a certain amount of steps to reach places before being
forced to return to the port. The eventual goal is to restore the glory of
Armoroad by finding routes to various other ports. In your way stand currents,
whirlpools, reefs, swamp, pirates, and your own puzzle solving skills. At
first, you are able to sail only for 6 squares, but, by finding an island with
Sheep Cheese, you can bump that up to 8. This allows you to reach yet other
places. This goes on and on until 28 at the end of the game. Each piece of
equipment costs money which you can regain by fishing - or lose by failing to
fish enough, being trapped into a whirlpool, attacked by a pirate or a giant
fish. This can become a money source or a money sink depending on how it goes.
There is another dimension to this game called Sea Quests. After restoring
the road to some place, you can fight the monsters in it alongside NPCs. This
brings experience and unique enchanted items. The most impressive thing about
Sea Exploration is that it's totally not required to complete the game!
Lots of combat system improvements including Limits - special attacks you
can cast whenever your Limit gauge gets filled. These include elemental
damaging moves, buffs or even a move which prevents you from being killed once
per fight (leaving you with one HP point instead). Of course, to use a
Limit, all the assigned participants must be alive. Etrian Odyssey I and
II had something similar, but way worse since the gauge took a year to be
filled and there wasn't any variety in Limit choice. Monsters now also form
true combos, such as the Ant Queen throwing her ant summons at you for massive
damage (and killing the ants).
Story wise, we have three endings depending on your choices throughout the game.
The two of them are split by choosing one or the other faction to side with
mid-game; the third one has other special requirements you aren't likely to get
without looking them up. You can't unlock two of the unlockable classes in one
playthrough since they depend on the chosen faction (you earn their class) -
but fortunately, there's a New Game+ which allows you to easily see the missed
content. Replayability is high - lots of fun or stupid party combos you might be
eager to try - and again, much of the enjoyment of this game comes from having
a strong party since the game is so demanding.
This game is so great I could spend a year praising it, but this is the Short
video game reviews after all (fuck it, I must have filled the Limit gauge
several times over here). So does Etrian Odyssey III have any flaws? Not
that I can see, except nitpicks. The Monster Codex could be improved with
information about where a certain monster is found (or information about its
weaknesses / gold drops if discovered by the player). Same with the Item
Codex - which monster does this item belong to? (or where do I harvest it,
etc). The difficulty might be slightly too high - though it does depend
heavily on the quality of your party. Do it properly (easier said than done) and
the game will feel just right. You'll need a way to deal - as well as take -
enough physical and elemental damage; have buffs, debuffs and healing; deal with
status and TP shortages, choose good subclasses and to cobble all that up in a
way that meshes well together - good luck! Some bosses and FOEs (by the way,
these are back to giving experience again - fixing a major EOII flaw) also
have gimmicks which require specific strategies. This is clearly a game for an
enthusiast, not a weekend vidya warrior. But for the intended audience, the
rating simply must be HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (3DS)
On my first playthrough of this game, I dismissed it due to the gimped skill
and class systems. At the beginning you only have 7 classes available compared
to EOIII's 10. More importantly, the amount of possible builds is much
lesser (e.g the Nightseeker has pretty much two, and the back row one isn't
very good). Skills are also arbitrarily locked behind levels instead of just
the points you put into them, further limiting your choices (or at least
pushing them forward in time). Turns out my knee-jerk reaction was
unjustified, though. With the game not throwing so many skills at you at once,
you can more easily focus on the kind of build you want. And there's still lots
of team-building depth due to party combinations and later - subclassing. Some
combos I particularly like include giving the Swords Dance (Dancer
subclass) skill to any character abusing regular attacks - like a crit-spamming
Sniper - allowing you to attack up to 4 times a turn for huge damage and
enchant procs. Or for a party combo - Dancer's Quick Step +
Arcanist's maxed Sleep Circle, with luck-enhancing equipment to put mobs
to sleep at the beginning of the turn. It's still easy to fuck up with a bad
subclass (I'm an expert on that, haha).
In previous installments, you were pretty much expected to play the whole game
with the party of five you've picked at the beginning. EOIV reverses that
though you can still do it if you want to. Not only do a few high-level NPCs
join you over the course of the game - but you can immediately train a certain
amount of recruits to a level more in line with what your party already has (at
the point you get the option). This gives you a way to play around with all the
possible classes without grinding or replaying the game. Resting also costs only
two levels, making subclassing screwups not so costly. Don't get me wrong - the
game is still very difficult and expects you to arrange your party wisely -
maybe even more so then EOIII. Better get your binds, status, debuffs,
status protection (don't leave Tharsis without this unless you like the game
over screen), enough damage and healing ready plus at least some reliable party
combo. If you don't, it's not only the bosses but also certain mobs (enemy
variety is huge in this game) that will expose you mercilessly - especially the
later game ones.
Enough about the combat and skill systems - let's move on to some substantial
upgrades that Legends of the Titan brought in. First of all, all the
labyrinths are now positioned in an actual world that you navigate with your
skyship - instead of being randomly put under each other; this makes the world
seem more "real" and is good for immersion. Skyship traveling could be compared
to the ship minigame from EOIII - except this time it's an integral part of
the game instead of a huge sidequest. You can find food that will boost your
stats, treasure hunt, rescue other skyships for rewards, fight (or distract)
overworld FOEs (which will defend the food that you intend to take), discover
hidden dungeons (yes, most are in fact optional), or even get smacked by a
fucking dragon (or blown away by a tornado) and be forced to return to town,
losing food and having to rest at the Inn. My only problem is that when that
happens, you don't have to pay for the skyship that was destroyed (as was the
case with EOIII ships) so there's not that much penalty for screwing up.
Overall, I give the game a huge + for connecting the labyrinths to an actual
world.
The game has well animated models for all the enemies. Finally, FOEs are actual
monsters running around instead of red or black blobs. This is also the basis
for certain puzzles that require you to manipulate FOEs to open up paths. The
soundtrack is often considered the best in the series - I especially love the
one from the last stratum. Many more map icons - EOIII hugely suffered from
a low amount. Here, instead of just marking an "event", you can use question
marks for informational events, exclamation marks to signify danger, X's to
remember unresolved ones, etc. Of course it's up to you where to put what - and
the last stratum (IMO, best in the series) will put your mapmaking prowess
heavily to test. The Monstrous and Item Codexes are heavily improved - you can
see where a certain item is found as well as the weaknesses and resistances of a
monster during battle if you've beaten them before (otherwise, use the
Analyze burst skill).
Story is pretty much the same as usual, but it's revealed in a much more
interesting way thanks to the books in the last stratum. Overall, Legends of
the Titan improves a lot over its predecessor with the only flaws being
the gimped skill / class system (which pretty much resolves itself later) and
the low penalty for a skyship screwup. If I was supposed to rate this game
during my first playthrough, I'd give it a Recommended. But don't make the same
mistake I did - at least keep going until subclassing. The game is amazing
(also very worth replaying despite low character variety at the beginning) and
fully deserves the rating of HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth (3DS)
If you've played the previous entries in the series, you know the drill already.
So let me just mention the changes this game has over the others:
The class and skill system is better than ever. 10 extremely well balanced
new classes, and instead of subclassing, a more logical system of Masteries
that allows you to choose one of two paths for your character after beating the
second boss.
The game is much more focused on FOE avoidance. This is not only because they're
harder to fight (don't even bother touching them the first time you meet them),
but that they can do more, and there are more of them. For example, in the
second stratum, you have FOEs that will push overworld boulders onto you (if you
let them). In the third, some FOEs are burned by specific tiles (the ones that
the sun shines on - so it only works during the day) - and yet others can go
through walls. Sometimes these come together, which makes navigating the
labirynth quite the puzzle. In stratum 4, you can control FOEs by hitting
crystals - this means you can even lock yourself into a dead end where the FOE
is sure to devour you. The funniest thing ever is possible in the fifth stratum
namely that you can get a certain FOE to punch the others; this can be used
tactically.
Mapmaking is more involved, you will often have to mark FOE paths to be able to
move through an area more easily. There are more additional terrains (like,
again, the sunburning tiles) which can be marked by specific floor colors. Some
FOEs move through water, which - again - necessitates marking it without walking
on the tiles themselves (your characters can't swim, apparently). The devs did
the worst thing ever, though, by removing the X and V icons from EOIV. These
were very useful to mark events as solved or unsolved; fortunately, this can be
sort of mitigated by the specific floor colors.
To combat the increased difficulty of EO5, you get a slew of Union skills to
abuse (these replace the Limits from EO3). Some of these are extremely broken,
like Hygeia's Bowl - which allows full team heal + resurrection of one ally
and will often save your ass in tough battles. Even the basic Double
Attack kicks ass and can be used a few times before you lose your Union
gauges. The most important one, though, is the Full Retreat skill, which
allows you to flee from FOEs 100% of the time - but requires at least three
members of your party alive, including one with a filled Union gauge. Remember,
though, that most of these skills are race-specific, which means only certain
characters of yours will be able to learn them. Forget about spamming Hygeia's
Bowl when only a single party member has it.
There is a new feature of cooking food, which makes outdoor healing possible
without wasting Medicas. Recipes allow you to also recover TP later in the game,
but require you to have all the ingredients, which are rare or hard to find.
Most of them have to be picked up in special spots, given to you by the
innkeeper or found by a character with a specific race skill, such as
Hunting. By the way, I really recommend picking up all the outdoor race
skills as early as possible - this allows you to activate many events (which EO5
is full of) that rely on them, such as looking into holes with your Night
Vision skill, or moving boulders with your Brute Strength; it also gives
experience.
The money system in this game is extremely well balanced (as always). Want to
have your Masurao swing four katanas? Prepare to go bankrupt, then, and have
your other characters walk around naked. In addition to money, another seriously
limited resource are the materials - whether monster drops or pickups. Even if
you can afford both the armor and weapon that depend on a FOE drop, you still
have to choose what to focus on, and can't have everything. Somehow, a lot of
RPGs (some reviewed here) screw this up.
Etrian Odyssey V finally adds proper character customization, including the
ability to modify hair, eye and skin colors - as well as 40 voices to choose
from. You will hear these voices all the time during battles, but the vast
majority of overworld dialogue is unvoiced - whether by NPCs or your characters.
Still, this is a welcome addition.
I have only a few small problems with this game. While the random encounters and
FOEs are extremely challenging, the bosses are all underwhelming. Maybe I'm
just better at the game than I was while playing the previous installments, but
the most tries a boss took me was two - not even the final boss escaped this
rule. The fights are not cakewalks, and they're still fun to play - but I
expected somewhat more. The story is a lot worse than the one from III or IV;
you could say it pretty much doesn't exist. Though this hasn't ever been a core
point of the series, it is still sad how the developers have almost completely
glossed it over this time. Etrian Odyssey V also contains no world map unlike
IV, but I can't honestly consider it a serious flaw since it's just coming back
to how EOIII already was - and I didn't hold it back against that game. There
are no Sea Quests or anything like that, either; the developers seemingly
focused on the essentials - and they did a great job. HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Mary Skelter: Nightmares (PS Vita)
Let's get the good things out of the way first - since I will whip out the heavy
Criticism Hammer later. The setting is amazing - the whole concept is the
Jail (where the game happens) mimicking locations from the human world - but not
necessarily in ways you'd expect. So, you will see lanterns submerged
underwater, random traffic lights, frogs locked behind bars, vines coming out of
walls and even doors made out of cakes. The monsters are also made out of
human objects (or living creatures) randomly put together. So, you'll be
fighting chess pieces, chairs with sharp teeth, keychains, women's shoes with
teeth inside them and a tongue sticking out, green peas with eyes instead of the
edible stuff, and even spiders with freaking sombreros on their heads.
Every monster has a few variations and although most are just simple recolors,
some have had quite a bit of detail added such as a different facial expression.
The story alone is a reason to check out Mary Skelter - I won't spoil it
here so play the game if you want to see it, or look it up (but it's not the
same). There are 10 girls to "befriend" and fight alongside. The lewd content
is off the charts; but the actual characters are also pretty well developed
(they are actually based on stories from the human world, fitting the setting).
Depending on which girl "likes" you the most, you can get a different ending.
Unfortunately, it is a formality to get all of them to "like" you - you just
have to give them the right gift items; they are cheap and money is plentiful.
Every character has a different costume for each of the five jobs they can
undertake and also two other ones for the battle states (including an
almost-naked one which just happens to be the strongest...). Since I've
mentioned battles, let us move on to that section already, since they are the
bread and butter of dungeon crawlers anyway (alongside the actual exploration).
And the battles, my friends, are where this game takes a huge dive in quality.
At least, this happens when you realize multi-target moves break the game
right open and take its guts out. Nothing remains after this - all random
encounters are reduced to "click the respective full-party attack". Almost
always, they are over in one turn and when you get Mortal Force (available
pretty early game) - in one attack. That also ruins the exploration part of
Mary Skelter since the items you pick up end up just taking space. Healing,
damage, revival, even mana recovery items end up useless since the girls can
regain their own mana in Massacre Mode that they access if they deal enough
damage. The other battle state, Blood Skelter, could serve as a counter to
that (since you lose control of the characters then and can even full party wipe
yourself) - unfortunately, it can be reached only by taking damage, so it's not
too dangerous.
Luckily, at least a part of the game is available where the above doesn't apply.
It takes a while before you get a full party and even longer to get the
necessarily skill points to max out the multi-target skills. However, when you
do so, the game becomes a piece of cake - so enjoy it while it lasts. Before
that moment, losing is a pretty real possibility and healing items are in high
demand (though damaging ones still suck). You might have to think then whether
you want to explore further in the dungeon or not, especially since Nightmare
chasing is a thing. Let me talk about that a bit - every dungeon has a
Nightmare guarding it, and after a certain amount of time, it will start running
after you. You cannot leave the dungeon or even see the minimap until
you get far enough away from it. The Nightmare can even block your way and
you have to fight it then - they are unkillable until the Core of the
dungeon is destroyed, so you have to knock them out and run away again until you
are able to leave its "zone".
And that is the other point where multi-target moves stop being broken. Every
dungeon has a Nightmare as its boss, and obviously, it's a single enemy so
full-party attacks are pointless. However, these fights can be trivialized by
attack debuffs - if you lower the Nightmare's offense twice, it might as
well become an ant for all the damage it will be doing. At least some of the
boss fights are legitimately tough - like the first two, where you might not
have the proper skills or items yet. Or the one in the Temple, which has
overworld aspects to it. The last one also presents some challenge, so it's not
all bad in terms of difficulty in this game - at least, you're not really having
your hand held and have to figure out the proper strats on your own. The
Nightmare chasing concept is amazing, actually - it's too bad it's relevant
only for a short while. On the other hand, if you're not being chased, you can
leave the dungeon anytime either by item or one of the girls' abilities (which
you have right from the beginning). At least, the developers could have made
that tougher so you couldn't travel through the dungeon fearlessly forever.
Now let's come back to the positives again, because this game does have a lot of
them. Soundtrack is decently high quality. Voice acting is good, but limited in
the English version. Menuing is great (this is where a lot of dungeon crawlers
struggle) - you can even skip dialogue and battle animations if you so desire.
Traps are more interesting than the usual spikes or lava, but don't do an amount
of damage that matters beyond early game. There's a significant amount of
weapons, skills, jobs, and other fun battle gimmicks such as various statuses or
licking blood for boosts. It's unfortunate that all those become mostly
useless because of that one glaring flaw. You can even learn the skills of the
monsters you fight if your girl takes the Mimic job - but again, it's only
relevant for a short while. Every Blood Maiden (what the girls actually are)
has a certain ability that can be used in the overworld, which adds certain
depth to the exploration and brings with it some puzzles to solve. You can
satisfy the Jail's three desires to gain some bonuses, which is a great
concept and fits with the story but again, the boosts are mostly useless (aside
from +gold and new area unlock). Wandering Merchants are a great idea which
allows you to get some rare items if you find one and he happens to have those
items at hand. Upgrading weapons is a possibility, and is one area of the game
that is actually done properly - Blood Crystals are limited so you have to
think hard about what you want to upgrade. The crystals can also be spent on
Blood Devolution (which allows re-assigning skill points) and changing jobs,
so there's no issue here. Too bad the developers did not take that approach
elsewhere. Because - if they just nerfed the multi-target moves a little - we
could have had a great game on our hands. But as it is, the most fitting rating
is Somewhat recommended.
Mary Skelter 2 (Switch)
Hey, it's Mary Skelter, except heavily improved. Aside from a completely new
world, story, characters (with some old ones still included), enemies, weapons
and mechanics, the sequel fixes the biggest issue of the original game - the
overpowered multi-target moves. Now they've become chants, which means
they're not immediately executed, and can be broken by enemy hits. No more
cleaning up the game with a first-turn Mortal Force! Since nothing has
gotten worse compared to the first title in the series, this alone is enough to
bump up the rating.
EDIT: okay, now that I've beaten the game, I can review it in more depth.
Unlike what I said before, the depth of Mary Skelter 2 is still pretty
barren - certainly not even close to Etrian Odyssey. Early on, damaging
items are really useful, same with healing items - but later, they become
useless and so you end up with a lot of trash in your backpack and exploration
made pointless. Traps also do an actually relevant amount of damage (compared to
the original), increasing the need for caution - but again, you end up with so
much healing items you can just ignore them and recover later. This is why the
best part of the game is probably the Aquarium Ruins - you have little
stuff, little money (and most items are unavailable at the shop at that point,
anyway), little skills, strong opposition and have to watch every step (to avoid
traps) and think about your every move against enemies.
Let's talk about the combat in more depth. Since you now can't breeze through
fights with a few multi-target hits, teambuilding and strategic move choice
become much more important. With a well-built team, you can pretty much handle
everything easily. I like Paladin with Intimidate up front and a bunch of damage
dealers in the back row. The only way to really fuck this setup up is for the
enemies to start spamming multi-target attacks. You can't predict when they're
going to happen and there is no way to do mass defense boosts (aside from Jail
Bonuses) or mitigate the damage in any other way except by wearing high defense
equipment. Jail Bonuses have been way improved (unlike the mostly useless ones
in the original), and hitting the one you need will often make or break your
battle. Picking the Jail Bonus skills early on is a smart thing to do, allowing
you to poison multiple enemies, fully recover multiple allies, or get multiple
stat boosts. Though there is a lot of enemy variety, their specification rarely
matters during battles except if they are capable of using multi-target moves
(those should be prioritized for killing). A lot of skills, like status
recovery, end up being useless because status is so rarely used and there are
items to cure it found all over the place, anyway. There is no way to prevent
mass stat lowering by enemies, and no way to recover except again, by lucky
Jail Bonuses. But this really only becomes relevant in the last dungeon.
Some important new features include Blood Farming, which allows you to plant
Blood Crystals at certain places on the map, that will turn into equipment
after a few fights. A piece of equipment picked up this way will not only have
increased stats, but often have skills attached to it that make it much more
useful than those bought in the store (and with this, money becomes irrelevant,
as in most RPGs). In itself, this is a great idea, but it has not been balanced
properly in this game. Skills like Fire Rig or Wind Rig allow you to do
more damage to enemies that are weak to those than even "high damage"
job-specific skills like Overlimit or Gigantast - for no mana cost, as
well. This makes picking any skill that doesn't hit a weakness pretty much
pointless. You can infuse Blood Packs into the Blood Maidens which will
give them additional skills (that don't take away mana unlike regular ones) -
though they mostly suck. Jail Trials are simply an in-built challenge mode,
which applies various handicaps (e.g no saving, no minimap, increased damage,
decreased stats) but gives you rewards if you manage to survive under those
conditions. It's great, because you can now choose the kind of difficulty you
want - and you can easily make it nightmarish.
One thing I really like about Mary Skelter 2 is its pacing. All the
mechanics are revealed slowly - this is great for such a complicated game, and
many RPGs do it wrong. Imagine if right away you were required to do Blood
Farming, flee from Nightmares, avoid well-placed traps, painstakingly
choose your equipment and watch heplessly as Ripper Jack rips and tears
through your team. But every time something new is introduced, you have an
opportunity to learn it - and the two first dungeons are pretty much tutorials.
Though, what I ended up disliking in the end is that the Nightmares appear way
too rarely, and even when they do, they're not very dangerous (aside from the
one in the last dungeon).
So, this game heavily improves over its predecessor. Eveything that was great
about Mary Skelter remains (as well as adding some welcome new stuff), and
the fundamentals (combat, exploration and teambuilding) are at least solid. Game
is also extremely long - takes about 100 hours for a regular playthrough (not
bothering to 100% with the many boring missions to clear) and regardless of its
flaws it managed to stay fun for all this time. It's just, when you have played
the Etrian Odyssey series, you kind of tend to compare other similar games
to it - and they can't measure up. But Mary Skelter 2 is still good in
itself, therefore it's Recommended.
Class of Heroes (PSP)
Turn-based dungeon crawler about school students going on an adventure to
explore some labyrinths. This game has heavily impressed me at first, and if
I wrote this review earlier, it would very likely get the highest rating. But
the longer I played it, the more my fascination with it dropped. The first
things you see are the character and party creation, and - since they are deeper
than the Pacific Ocean - you will be pulled in and put up with the game's
numerous flaws. Dungeons are long and repetitive, and for some of them you
need to find the one specific square to step on out of the whole width of the
map. If you guess wrong, you might even get sent to the beginning of the
dungeon, and have to go back to seek that square again. Other times, you might
be walking through "dark space" that you can't light up and have to find your
way blindly. Though most of these are pretty short and easy, there are ones that
will make you pull your hair out. While traveling, you get to listen to the
same background music all the time...except when you get attacked by random
encounters (which you can't avoid - only run away from), where it is replaced by
a single battle music. The fights themselves are not very deep - though there
is a variety of enemies, spells, weapons, etc...once you get your party set up
well, most of it doesn't matter - you just click Attack. Unless you meet a
boss, which can make all your preparations irrelevant while it one-shots your
party.
With games like this, there is always great potential to make good puzzles, but
Class of Heroes is lacking those. I found a good one based on a clock in
one of the late dungeons, and that's pretty much it; but I didn't finish the
game, since it bored me. Maps are pretty much required to traverse the dungeons,
and if you want to keep them with you at all times, much of your bag space will
be taken up - and with all the loot to pick up, that's a problem. Many missions
are heavily luck based, requiring you to find three different types of wine
that never fucking drop, for example (for those missions, it is often easier to
find the required items in stores). Arranging the loot after going back from a
dungeon takes fucking ages. You could say "just get good", but there's the good
kind of difficulty and the annoying one, and Class of Heroes is heavy on the
latter. There is little story, bland environments, annoying sound effects (the
levitation sound, ugh)...Since I've shat on this game until now, let me mention
some of the good things. As said before, character and party creation. Class,
skill, item, spell, enemy variety (though much of it is wasted - either it's
useless or absolutely required). Alchemy system allows you to create weapons
from the resources you pick up (and you will need it since the buyable stuff
mostly sucks). And, unfortunately, I can't say much more good about this game.
I've shat on titles like Hitman GO or Plants vs Zombies, but the
gameplay of those is much more engaging. The meat of Class of Heroes -
dungeon crawling and battling - leaves a lot to be desired. Though I do
recommend at least checking out this game for a while - even if only to see the
character creation system - I can't give it a better rating than Not
recommended.
Virtua Tennis 4 (PS Vita)
Game, Set, Match, Player One! The only tennis game available on the Vita -
and it does a great job of representing its genre. Nice practice mode will teach
you the basics, there are also Arcade and Exhibition (custom) modes -
but the real meat of the game is the World Tour. There, you get to create
your own tennis player (and the customizability is massive: from height,
muscularity and facial features to the way your player will hit his
groundstrokes), whom will then fulfill his dream of becoming - hopefully - the
world's best tennis player! The overworld takes the form of a board game on
which you move using "tickets" that allow you to move a certain number of steps.
The goal of the game is to earn as many stars as you can, climbing up the
rankings to eventually challenge The King of tennis itself. The board game part
is pretty deep in itself - after every movement you get a random ticket; the
most common are the ones allowing you to move 2 or 3 spots. You have to decide
on which spots to step on - do you want to do a media interview (adding stars
but decreasing money), meet the fans (again adding stars but decreasing
condition), restore condition (needed to play tennis at full capacity), buy
additional tickets, do one of the many training minigames available (which will
increase the skills of your player, unlocking one of the many playstyles), or
play the actual tennis matches? You might also be put into a sticky situation
where you can step only on accidents, if you have all tickets of the same
number, for example - forcing you to plan ahead.
The season is split into five parts, each with a major tournament and some
lesser ones. The amount of stars you have determines which ones you can join;
getting further in them gives you more stars. You get to face actual tennis
players such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray or Maria Sharapova - and
even recruit them as doubles partners. The attention to detail in this game is
insane - not only do these players play eerily similar to their real-life
counterparts, but even lesser players each have unique animations made for them.
Okay, let's talk about the other part of the game - the actual tennis. The
developers did a great job of simulating the real tennis season - you get to
play on all the surfaces which have different physics. Each opponent also has
his own playstyle and will require a different strategy. All the usual shots are
included in the game - slice and spin serves, backhands and forehands, volleys,
drop volleys, diving volleys...dropshots, lobs, smashes. slices, and even
game-winning power shots. Mastering them all will be essential to succeeding in
Virtua Tennis 4. Okay, you've cleared the World Tour - now what? New
Game+ is even better than your first playthrough, since you get to keep all the
money, skills, unlocked playstyles and doubles partners. It's easier to
concentrate on earning the required amount of stars if you don't have to worry
so much about training or having money for the charities, etc. Now you are also
a better player so you might be able to beat the Federers and Djokovics
that used to kick your ass. There's much more to this game (like buying gear -
you can use a fucking frying pan as your racket!), but I've already rambled on
for too long - the rating, of course, is HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!
Secret of Mana (PS Vita)
A remake of the legendary SNES RPG (which I've also played very long ago).
Gamers have long been used to classics being shoddily revived in order to cash
in on nostalgia; some examples are HOMM3 HD and Duke Nukem 3D: World
Tour. Is Secret of Mana one of those? Well, yes and no. Clearly lots of
effort has been put into the lively, colorful, 3D graphics, the voice acting for
all characters and the remixed soundtrack. However, in cutscenes, the
characters' mouth movements are either not in sync with the voices or not
there at all. The acting itself is of average quality and some of the remixes
sound like something a YouTuber who has just discovered FL Studio whipped
out in a weekend (you can switch to the original soundtrack if you want to, at
least). Combat got somewhat improved (more freedom of movement helps), but lots
of the old quirks were inexplicably left in there - you can still just attack a
single enemy repeatedly while he lies there and cannot do anything at all about
his imminent death, for example. Which is where we come to the main issue:
Secret of Mana was never really good. The devs had a choice to either
fix what they could (ending with something quite different than SoM) or stay
true to the original - and they mostly chose the latter (but the purists still
hate the remake, so whatever). The most important problems of the SNES classic
were kept - and the sad thing is, the remake could have improved some of them
without much backlash, but didn't - let's check out some of those:
There is not much differentiating the weapons aside from longer or shorter
range. It takes some serious grinding if you want to specialize in more than one
as well; more than that - the higher levels are not always better,
exchanging a strong side effect (say, confusing enemies) for a weak one like
more damage against lizards. Couldn't they have made it so that you can choose
to keep an upgrade or ditch it if you don't like it? Magic also has levels which
you need to grind for, but you get some of the spirits late in the game so they
end up being useless. You're unlikely to be using the low-level (and high MP
cost) Lucent Beam when you already have a level 6 or so Blaze Wall (and
the final boss happens to be weak to Lucent Beam), or the Sprite's MP
Absorb which would be really good if it stole a high enough amount of mana.
Not that it actually matters because the game's difficulty is a joke and a
downgrade compared to the original; even the bosses don't feel much
different from regular enemies so you don't have to care about their weaknesses.
There is a significant difficulty spike in the Pure Land - but all this
means is that one of your characters might actually die, and you can just revive
them with the Angel's Grail or the Revivifier spell. The allowed item
amount by default is 4 - like in the original - but can be increased to 10 in
the options, worsening the casualization; there is also never a shortage of cash
so you can always buy the best equipment, nullifying any strategy in choosing
what to wear (not that less money would help, since there's usually only one
correct equipment choice - the newest and best one). Charged attacks are still
useless since they miss too much and the damage increase is small. AI is still
shit. Annoying menuing is ubiquitous; the remake's shortcuts help somewhat but
only two are available when it'd have been easy to create more. I could go on
and on - long story short, Secret of Mana is a shoddy attempt to modernize a
game that doesn't deserve it in the first place. If you expect anything more
than being able to hit stuff with some cool animations and sometimes funny
dialogue, you'll be disappointed with it. Not recommended.
Trials of Mana (Switch)
UPDATE: rewrote the review - game is worse than it seems. I've let too much
stuff slide due to nostalgia and initial impressions. Read on:
I've been hyped for this game ever since it was announced. This is actually a
remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, a Japanese-only Secret of Mana sequel which
- unlike its predecessor - was actually a decent game. You could pick from
6 characters (each with a different storyline, stats, and skills), enjoy
improved graphics, an extremely good soundtrack (compared to the lackluster
SoM which had e.g the same battle theme for most bosses), as well as huge
improvements to the equipment and spell systems (each character had his own
weapon now, without the shitty leveling). There were even four different final
classes available for everyone! Of course, the game still had significant flaws
(might have been too ambitious for the SNES), so I was eager to see it get
improved. How did Trials of Mana perform in this regard?
Well, it's been turned into full 3D (third person perspective instead of the
weird top-down view from the SoM remake), with nice looking character
models, scenery, actually properly animated (and skippable!) cutscenes. However,
here we meet the first hiccup; despite the true 3D, you can only explore the
world in ways the devs approved. Jump on this roof, but not that one; reach
the treasure from this side, but not the other - even though they both look just
as reachable. This is a great way to ruin immersion when you can't even jump
over a little barrier or from small cliff (right after being shot out of a
cannon and living). You quickly learn not to trust what you actually see
since it's not a reliable representation of what the game does internally.
The 3D - of course - means a complete combat overhaul. Finally, you can
avoid enemy attacks! However, there's still not much depth to the
combat. Lots of enemy variety (armored knights, bats, disappearing ninjas,
poison spitting slime, sorcerers), but the game is so easy that you don't have
to care about the particulars. Simply mash the A button and finish with X if
you want a stronger or area attack. Use overpowered class strikes to break
armored enemies (though even if you fail to do that, there's not much
consequence except they will take little damage until the armor is gone). A
charge attack can also break the armor - and you can get stunned while executing
it, but there's no real penalty and the time required to perform it is short
enough that it doesn't matter. For the flying ones - just jump or use a spell.
Mobs never do anything to bother you, really - and yet, the developers have also
put fucking healing barrels all over the place - as if the game wasn't easy
enough.
Let's move on to the bosses then. For the early ones nothing really changes
except you might spend a few healing items - which are not only ubiquitous in
treasure chests but also buyable en masse in shops (and money is plentiful).
They are impressive presentation-wise, but only the few late game ones present
any challenge at all (maybe starting from Zable Fahr, the last
Benevodon). All bosses have weaknesses (which you're told while targeting
them) but again, until the endgame they don't really matter. As with regular
enemies, you can avoid the Big Bad's telegraphed attacks - which you could not
in the original - and yet the difficulty has not been adjusted upwards to
compensate for it. Some bosses have gimmicks such as traps or throwing around
field stuff that you have to destroy in time - else you'll be hit with a strong
attack later. Again, it all looks cool, but until the very end game doesn't make
much difference.
I haven't yet mentioned the very good skill and class system in this game
because it's almost completely wasted. Why bother painstakingly designing
your party when you can button mash through the vast majority of enemies,
anyway? But you do have that option, and in a properly designed game, Trials
of Mana's system would fit very well. Upon leveling up, you can pick which
stats you want to increase - and those will unlock different abilities. This (in
theory) creates many playstyle possibilities for each party member. Funnily (or
annoyingly) enough, some great skills are hidden behind stats that the
particular character might not want (e.g Spirit for Hawkeye) - but yet
will have to increase if he wants those abilities. So, you have to decide
between getting the good skills OR the more useful stats, which is good design.
Though the potential for customization before changing classes is small, later
the possible combos can get quite involved (especially if you add Chain
Abilities to the mix). For example, Hawkeye has an ability which increases
damage to statused enemies by 30%. Other characters have spells or skills that
can cause status effects too, so using those together is obvious. There are lots
of fun spells - such as making the enemies smaller so they can be stomped on.
Buffs, debuffs, elemental sabers that will get used only on bosses and can be
replaced by cheap items if you lack the necessary characters. What a waste.
Worst thing about all this is it could have been easily fixed. Delete the
casual healing barrels. Increase the price or decrease the availability of items
(e.g only on certain days of the week - the current day / night system is yet
another waste). Modify the enemies so that they can do more to disrupt you.
Status is cool but again - healing items and magic are dime a dozen and there
are also anti-status abilities now. It seems that - thanks to the skill system -
our characters gained an opportunity to get stronger; but the enemies have
stayed the same as in the original. They do have lots of abilities, but again,
they can be almost ignored since they're so easily beaten. You can also run
away from encounters - which some people recommend as a way to increase the
game's difficulty. However, having to skip one of the main parts of the game
just because the developers fucked up the design isn't my cup of tea. It also
takes a long time to actually get away if the enemies detect you; but sometimes,
you can be standing a meter away from them and they won't see you - and you
can't hit them then! The battle only starts when the game decides it should,
which is just a relic from old-style RPGs that has no business in this Action
RPG.
To their detriment, the developers seemingly tried to stay as close to the
original as possible - but as with SoM, purists will still find a reason
to hate the updated installment. As for some other stuff, the voice acting
leaves a lot to be desired. Remixed soundtrack is great - no duds unlike the
SoM remake. Story-wise, the game stays faithful to the original, except the
plots are fully resolved in the postgame. There are lots of convenience
improvements - e.g the game tells you the full class specifications in advance,
more shortcuts, good menuing, ability to skip most cutscenes, etc. It's too bad
the modern gaming trend seems to be to tack on as much stuff as you can - and
then make it all irrelevant; e.g the great class and skill system that ends up
being mostly wasted, or the powering up / weakening of different elements during
certain days (you can completely ignore it and not even notice). All in all -
this game will be right up your alley if you just want to beat up mobs with some
nice-looking combos and play around with interesting spells. There's not much
to this game beyond the surface - even the usual RPG stuff like treasure hunting
or talking to people is pretty barren (not even a sidequest in sight). However,
Trials of Mana is fun and will likely keep you captivated until the end.
Somehow though, a replay with another party setup doesn't seem appealing. Though
it has improved a lot over the original, the core flaws are just too much.
Changing the rating to Somewhat recommended.
River City Girls (Switch)
River City Ransom was one of my favorite games on the NES and clearly ahead
of its time. River City Girls brings it to the modern age, this time with
women as the fighters. How does it stack up to the legacy of the original,
though?
River City Girls has massively improved over RCR in technical ways, as
expected. The 2 enemy on the screen limit has been lifted, the AI is way better,
there are many more areas to explore, more items, moves, animations, high enemy
variety, nice cutscenes, voice acting, etc. However, how the game uses all that
leaves a taste of disappointment in my mouth.
For example, let's talk about the moves. Each girl has a set of basic moves that
are all unlocked after a few levels, so you can use them for 90+% of the game.
There's also a dojo where you can learn additional moves at the cost of money.
However, aside from looking cool, they're pretty useless since you can
easily beat the game with just the default ones. There's also a problem with the
controls, in that often, the same button is assigned to two different
moves. In those cases, the move used will either be determined by context, or
seemingly randomly (or I just haven't found the trigger). An easy example is the
ground stomp - if you stand close to a fallen enemy, you can stomp on them for
damage; but if you are not in the proper position, or the enemy is already
getting up - you will instead use the headbutt move (assuming Misako), doing
no damage and making yourself vulnerable due to long recovery time. The same
issue exists with the dojo Suplex move, which throws the enemy backwards
(compared to the default that does it forwards). The problem is - we can't
actually pick which way the enemy will be thrown (or at least, the game doesn't
tell you how to do it and I haven't figured it out). If we could, that would
have a strategic use because the thrown enemy would hit the others. But as it
happens seemingly randomly, the move is a waste of money; worse than that -
since it's random, it will sometimes throw the enemy backwards when you want it
forwards - which makes having the move worse than not !
After the first area (River City High) is cleared, mobs never really bother
you even on hard difficulty. This is because the default moves are so strong and
you've unlocked them all by then, and also that you can buy healing items
starting from the second area. River City Girls prevents you from leaving
certain places until trashing enough enemies in there - which is a great design
decision, but doesn't matter much if you have a stack of healing items in your
inventory (as you should). Even if you die, you lose only one fourth of your
money (compared to River City Ransom's half), which makes death not carry so
much weight. You can also buy equipment like clothes, makeup and stuff, but
it's all pretty much useless, giving only a few% bonuses. Not that money is ever
in demand (unlike in River City Ransom) since you're pretty much showered
with it - for example, huge amounts for solving missions. And when you realize
that only healing items are worth buying, money becomes almost irrelevant. There
is a lot of enemy variety (RCR had pretty much none), but that doesn't really
translate to a difference in strategy (similar issue as Trials of Mana).
What about the boss fights? Again, they're cool technically - concept,
animations, voice acting, etc are all on point. But gameplay-wise, they're
absolutely terrible, in my opinion. They're an example of bullshit
difficulty - most of them (I think all except Misuzu, the first one) have
a bunch of magic moves while all you have is human moves. This wouldn't be so
bad if you could actually hit the bosses - but you can only do that at arbitrary
points during the fight. Once they start doing their magic moves, they're
suddenly immune without any in-game explanation or a way to detect when they are
vulnerable. Though it's clear the devs were trying to be ambitious (e.g
Noize's Guitar Hero-style minigame is creative), the boss fights are
long and boring and mostly boil down to spamming healing items and trying to
get a hit here and there. You could say I just suck, but I beat Cuphead
recently and that game does difficulty much better!
I can't fault River City Girls in presentation. Story is pretty basic, but
much of the dialogue is good and the ending is funny. UPDATE: however, after
you unlock the additional characters, the game still pretends you're playing
the default ones (story-wise), which is extremely annoying and shows lack of
care. I can think of a bunch of ways to solve this problem, including just
removing the non-applicable dialogue if you're lazy. But the best way would be
making those characters work with their own story (forgive me, I'm trying not to
spoil shit here). The soundtrack is amazing, especially the ones with
vocals. The move sound effects and animations make them feel impactful. But all
that has to take a backseat to the gameplay, and here River City Girls isn't
doing as good as I think it should. Though beating up people is extremely fun,
and the game did have some good design decisions in it (such as being able to
recruit enemies) - with several core flaws (money not being worth much, weak
boss fights, the meaninglessness of death, wasted enemy variety, lack of proper
story for the unlockable characters) I cannot give it a better rating than
Somewhat recommended.
Contra 4 (DS)
Maybe you are wondering why I haven't reviewed a game in so long. Well, it's
because I was playing this and couldn't beat it. Finally, I got the monkey off
my back today and can start to describe my experience.
First of all, this is definitely the hardest game I've ever played. It took
me many months (maybe a year) and likely hundreds of tries to finally come out
on top of it - and this is on Normal difficulty! I shudder to think what
Hard feels like. Anyway - if you've never played a Contra game - let me
explain how it works, and why it's so difficult. You get shot? You die. You jump
into a hole? You die. An enemy touches you? You die. And there are lots of
different enemies coming at you from every corner (or even turrets randomly
appearing from the ground), you're pretty much forced to keep running and
shooting, else you get swarmed by a barrage of bad guys and their bullets. What
are the consequences of dying? Well, you lose a life and respawn - but without
your current weapon, which is the key to this game. See, the only thing that
makes Contra 4 even managable at all are the strong weapons you can pick up.
Just getting the Laser or Spread Gun greatly increases your fighting
capability. But every weapon also has a possible upgrade, which turns them into
a German Shepherd compared to the Chihuahua that is the Rifle which you end
up with when you die. And this Chihuahua won't defend you from anything, which
means you die and die even more. All that can save you then is a weapon drop
that hopefully appears soon. If you are stuck with the Rifle during a boss
fight, better say your prayers. This really turns Contra 4 into a game of
desperately avoiding death. I've had runs where everything went well until that
one unfortunate bullet that hit me, or a bad jump which took away my weapon and
made me vulnerable. Then - since the Rifle is so useless - I got overwhelmed
by the enemies and kept losing life after life. See, there are some sections of
the game where being stuck with the Rifle is pretty much a death sentence -
such as the Factory's boss where you just can't deal enough damage to
squeeze it. Or the Alien Hive level where for a long time you don't get a
weapon drop, and the one you get the earliest (Flamethrower) is pretty weak.
The fact that you can have two weapons at once provides a little mitigation;
for safety, you can even keep using the Rifle at particularly dangerous
sections - then, when you die, your strong weapon is kept. Still, due to this
issue, Contra 4 requires extreme concentration at all times.
So, how not to die? Again, play like a speedrunner - keep running and shooting.
A grenade to the face will make you learn the hard way that you just don't stop
in this game unless you found a really good spot. It also helps to learn the
level, because the enemy positioning can be bullshit sometimes. And here we come
to the most important problem of this game, IMO. See, Contra 4 is really
a game of memory, mostly. Even the turrets coming out of the ground and
immediately shooting at you (this is in the first level) will confirm that. If
you are a first-time player, you will fucking die then - unless you have
godly reaction time and the ability to immediately form a brain map of the
positions of other enemies on the screen. But, that eventually burns you out -
and you'll need to do it many times. Another such moment is during the first
boss fight, where - to avoid being hit by its cannons - you need to stand to the
left of the screen. But, an enemy just so happens to run from that side right
at the start of the fight, and - if you don't know it - you will die. You
might be able to instinctively press the jump button, but so what if you jump
right into the boss' bullet? Fortunately, there's very little randomization in
this game - enemy's positions are mostly hardcoded. Don't get me wrong - it's
not all memory - but it helps significantly. The game, also, does eventually
kind of fix this issue with its Challenge Mode that you unlock after you
beat the regular one. There, you are thrown into the levels you know and love,
but have to play them in different ways such as speedrunning, pacifism, or being
stuck with a certain weapon. The more challenges you complete, the more
additional content you unlock (such as the ability to play the original
Contra!); there are 40 ones in total. Edit: fuck it, this mode is
amazing - probably better than the actual game.
So what makes Contra 4 so good? After all, I kept playing it even after
getting my ass kicked over and over. I pretty much dropped all other, more
advanced games to focus on it. See, this game is extremely simple - anyone can
pick it up in a minute. But to master it is something else entirely. Many other
games (especially RPGs) require you to learn a bunch of stuff just to begin
playing - battle mechanics, items, menuing, characters, etc. This can discourage
someone who just wants to have some fun. Contra 4 has hit the jackpot
here - the game is extremely addictive right from the start until the final
boss' very last breath. And eventually, the memorization "issue" turns into an
advantage - you learn the level so well, you know when to jump, shoot, what
paths to take (swim or use the bridge?), which weapon to pick up and when, etc.
You become the master of conquering aliens, and you are proud. But even then,
Contra 4 is so hard you still need to pay attention. And there are sections
where memory will barely help you - like with the skeleton fish jumping out of
the water in the Ocean level. The audiovisuals support the experience -
soundtrack is lively, weapons feel impactful and there are lots of explosions.
Level design is good and varied, with lots of different enemies. In addition to
regular platforming, you will be stuck into bases where the camera flips towards
fake 3D; you can also do fun stuff like ride watercrafts.
I'd really like to give this game the highest rating; and if the length of time
spent on it was the only criterion, it'd easily earn it. But it isn't, and it
has enough small flaws to drop a level. Aside from what I mentioned earlier, a
really annoying issue is that it's easy to accidentally pick up a weapon drop
you don't want - and you can't get the old one back. This can seriously ruin a
playthrough, especially if your other weapon is the Rifle. Another one is
how, you can't navigate back to the earlier parts of the level - and if it's a
vertical one (like the latter half of Laboratory) you will just die
trying to jump down. Then, some bosses can only be hit at specific points,
without a tell (similar issue to River City Girls - but worse since death is
so costly). Let me guarantee, though, that you will forget about all this
when in the heat of trying to save the world from alien invasion. Actually, fuck
it - these flaws are extremely small, and don't really matter. HEAVILY
RECOMMENDED!
Cuphead (Switch)
This is a delayed review, that I didn't write when I should have, because I was
lazy. But the game is so good that I have to. So, well, Cuphead is mostly about
fighting bosses (with periodic breaks for platforming levels you know from all
the Mario games and similar) - but it squeezes out everything possible from this
style.
Every boss has a few forms, which will require different strategies. You choose
which weapons to bring to each fight (which you first have to buy - this can
modify your playthroughs somewhat; certain bosses will be harder with the lack
of specific weapons). You can only have two weapons per fight, which requires
you to strategize and punishes you for bad choices. The same applies to
charms - non-weapon power-ups that you can only have one of (these include
additional hearts, invulnerability dash, etc). And so, the issue that many games
have, where there are only one / two overpowered weapons and the rest are
useless - or where the game is so easy that it doesn't matter what you use -
evaporates.
Because Cuphead is actually extremely hard. Though the first few bosses
might give you the illusion that it isn't, even they will challenge you if
you're not good enough; and the second world bosses - especially Grim Matchstick
- will kick your ass. There is really good progression here, though - so
you're not thrown into the jungle right at first. Do not expect any handholding
here, however - you have to beat all the bosses to progress to the next world.
The really hardcore players can also try to get the best ranks, which requires
winning without losing HP, as well as hitting enough pink projectiles (which can
be used for bonuses during fights, but can also damage you if you don't perform
the double-hit on them).
This game really doesn't have any flaws. There is high (but fair) difficulty
with good progression (and it's much less of a memory game than Contra 4), good
balance between weapons, great cartoony art style, good soundtrack, great
diversity in bosses (the game doesn't take itself seriously, so a bee can turn
into a plane, etc. It all fits well together, though), good story that explains
why you are doing what you are doing but stays out of your way, great dialogue
(bosses will mock you for losing to them, and every one of them has a few lines
of mockery depending on the moment of your demise), breaks for exploration and
some additional modes. I have nothing to complain about here, which never
happens for me. It is one of the best games I've ever played, for sure. By the
way, there is a DLC that I haven't seen, so this review is for the version
without the DLC. HEAVILY RECOMMENDED!